Handsome smile;

She put it around her neck.

The chain was cold. The medallion was warm. It settled just above her collarbone and found her heartbeat immediately.

Eva curled up in the velvet chair and closed her eyes.

"I miss you so much, Grandma," she murmured.

She was asleep before the fire went low.

About an hour later, the amber light began to change.

It pulsed faster. Then faster still, frantic, like a heart about to give out.

Then it blazed.

Light spilled across Eva's chest. Across her face. Then the whole room lit amber, the walls, the ceiling, the curtains, glowing from no source anyone would be able to explain.

The liquid inside the crystal began to spin.

Then a small sound. A crack. It spread across the crystal in thin lines, like frost on a window.

Eva slept through all of it.

The light grew until it bled through the windows and lit the snow outside. The mountain house glowed like a lantern in the dark.

And then, silent but total, a shockwave pulsed outward from the room. Trees shuddered. Snow lifted from the ground. Animals fled into the deep forest.

The medallion blazed once more.

Then stopped.

The crystal had gone dark and clouded. The liquid inside had vanished. It was empty now.

Eva slept on.

But outside the house, something had changed.

Snow fell in silence. The night was absolute. And then, the sound of bare feet on the veranda.

Male feet. Moving through the snow.

They were covered in mud and dirt. The nails were too long, almost clawed. But they were human feet. Now.

They stepped onto the porch. Crossed the creaking wood slowly. Came to the window.

Through the glass, Eva was visible. Sleeping in the chair, quiet, the medallion dark and cold against her chest.

A hand reached the glass. Large. Scarred. Powerful.

It touched the surface.

The glass fogged with warm breath.

Fingers moved slowly across it. As though wanting to reach through.

And then a voice, low and hoarse.

"Bound by blood, sealed by magic... Welcome, my mate. Welcome, Rose's daughter."

Eva woke in early morning light with a pounding head and an ache in every joint from sleeping in the armchair. She lay still for a moment, eyes unfocused, trying to remember where she was.

Then she noticed it.

Not a sight. A scent.

Gerbera flowers and coffee. Colombian, dark roast. Her coffee, her brand, unmistakably. It was drifting through the whole house.

She sat up fast, and the blanket that had been draped over her slid to the floor.

She stopped.

She hadn't covered herself last night. That blanket had been in the bedroom. She hadn't touched it.

"Hello?" she called. "Is someone there?"

Silence.

She got up and went to the kitchen. A vase on the counter held fresh gerberas. In the coffee pot, a full press of her specific coffee waited, still hot.

Eva stood there and looked at it for a long moment.

Then she grabbed her head with both hands. "Nothing is normal in this town! Nothing! I can't even be surprised anymore!"

She poured a mug.

Tasted it.

A smile spread across her face before she could stop it.

"Well," she muttered, absolutely furious about it. "At least he makes good coffee."

She grabbed her coat and boots and stepped outside to check the wood situation. The moment her foot hit the snow, she saw them. Footprints. Large. Barefoot. Leading away from the porch.

She followed them. Step by step, tracking them through the snow toward the tree line, where they simply... stopped. No disturbance, no slide marks. Gone.

"Did he fly?" she said out loud.

Then she raised her head and walked directly into a solid wall of a person.

Joe stood in front of her, expression amused, that maddening half-smile already in place.

"You'd make a good hunting dog," he said. "You follow tracks well."

Eva's hand moved before she'd finished thinking about it. She swung for his face.

Joe caught her wrist. Fast. Effortless. "Don't. You'll hurt yourself."

"Let go of my wrist," she said through her teeth, "and explain how you got into my house."

Joe's eyebrows lifted. From his expression, she almost believed he genuinely hadn't been inside. Almost.

"Go back inside," he said.

"You don't get to tell me what to do. Answer the question."

"I didn't enter your house, Eva. Even if I wanted to, I couldn't." His voice was flat. Final.

She turned that over. "And why couldn't you?"

He smiled and said nothing.

"Right," she said. "Of course. You and your secrets can go straight to hell."

She turned around and walked back toward the house, then stopped and wheeled on him. "I'm going to the police! Stay out of my property!" She looked at where he'd been standing.

Gone.

She stared at the empty air. Then looked at the shed. She needed wood.

"Great," she said. "He has teleportation powers. Fantastic."

As she lit the fireplace later, she noticed the medallion catch the light. She looked at it properly for the first time since waking. The crystal was dark now, the amber liquid gone. Empty.

And then it clicked.

"Oh my god," she said.

She said it to the room, to no one.

"I released a ghost."

From somewhere out in the trees, something answered. A sound that was almost a growl, almost a laugh.

Eva showered, drank the rest of the coffee, and sat down with everything from the chest spread out in front of her. Symbols. Diagrams. Phrases in a language she couldn't read.

"The wolf's woman," she murmured, tracing one line. She pulled out her phone and started searching. Nothing. No results.

She put the phone down.

"I'm not the bookworm here," she said to herself. "I need Elly."

She packed everything back into the leather bag, got ready, and drove over.

Elly screamed when she told her what happened.

Actually screamed, then started pacing around her living room, stomping her feet, clapping her hands like a child at a party.

Eva stood in the middle of it all with her arms crossed. "You are all medical cases. Every single one of you. What am I doing here."

Elly reappeared shortly with a dusty book pressed to her chest. The cover had a symbol on it, something that looked like an arrow embedded in a large L. Eva touched it. Elly pushed her hand aside immediately.

"Did the light from the medallion look like this?" She showed her a page. Orange light in horizontal bands.

"Yes. Exactly like that. Like someone had lit a lantern inside it."

Elly clapped again. "I can't believe it. It's a spirit!"

Eva took a very slow breath. "I knew it. I released a ghost, didn't I. Please tell me this town has some kind of spirit-removal service. I made a promise to my grandmother. I'm celebrating Christmas in that house."

Elly laughed. "This isn't some ordinary ghost, Eva! It's an ancient spirit." She flipped through pages rapidly. "Legends about this exist all over the world. The wolf ancestors of the Turkic peoples, Asena the she-wolf, Bozkurt the great protector. The Tatar wolf Börü. The Mongol Borte Çino. And for the Native Americans, a spiritual guardian." She turned the book toward her. Eva stared at it.

"So," Eva said slowly. "I summoned the ancient wolf of the witches from your legend."

"I think so!"

"Elly!" Eva's voice pitched up. "Those legends also feature virgin sacrifices, girls eaten alive, and people with their blood completely drained. How exactly do you know this thing is friendly?"

Elly's smile didn't waver. "I know," she said. "Because he's your mate."

Eva stared at her.

Then she reached for her coat.

"Okay," she said. "You've completely lost it."

"Eva, wait, wait!" Elly grabbed her arm. "We can actually check this."

Eva stopped. Looked at her. "Check what, exactly."

"Bare your chest. If the seal has started forming, he's taken his first step onto solid ground."

Eva's shoulders dropped. "And here I was hoping you'd say something with even a shred of logic."