Elara POV:
The courtyard settles slowly after Sonia is taken to the border. The pack returns to its rhythm, wolves drift back to the tasks they had abandoned earlier. Someone relights a torch that burned too low, a pair of hunters resume an argument about patrol routes as if the interruption was nothing more than a passing storm.
But the air still carries the echo of it. Of Velarys rising, and the pack answering.
I lean against the outer railing of the courtyard, elbows resting lightly on the worn stone, watching the treeline where Rhydan disappeared with Sonia slung over his shoulder. The gate closed behind them minutes ago, but the scent of adrenaline still lingers faintly in the night air.
Behind me, Caelan’s voice carries low and steady.
He and Kieran stand near the center of the
