KALEN POV
The wind cut across the ruined hillside as we walked, the silence between us filled with tension, reflection—and something dangerously close to hope. Nora kept pace beside me, quiet but alert, her fingers brushing the hilt of the dagger Valya had given her.
Davorin was gone. But his shadow was not.
“I hate the quiet,” Valya muttered, walking ahead. “It’s too calm. Like the world’s holding its breath.”
She wasn’t wrong. It felt like we were standing on the edge of something, a pause before chaos reassembled itself. The kind of quiet that comes right before a scream.
“There’s movement in the East,” she added, squinting into the distance. “We should make for the safehouse at Marrow Creek. Supplies, shelter. And an ally I think you’ll want to see.”
Nora turned to me, her brows
