The next three days passed in a blur of final preparations. Strike teams ran drills. Witches practiced coordinated spellwork. Medical teams set up field hospitals at three locations around Montana for treating wounded during the assault.
Mary divided her time between healing coalition wolves and attending strategy meetings. She was trying so hard to be ready, to be the leader everyone needed her to be. But I saw the cracks forming. The nightmares that woke her every night. The way she jumped at sudden noises. The moments when her eyes went distant and I knew she was back in that cell.
Two days before the assault, my father pulled me aside after a council meeting.
"I need to tell you something," Theodore said seriously. "Something I have kept secret for a long time."
"What is it?"
"Twe
