Sera's POV
Nobody sleeps much after the carving is found, and by morning the yard is full of wolves who found reasons to be near me without ever saying so directly: Cas sharpening a blade she doesn't need sharpened; two of the border scouts lingering over breakfast longer than the meal requires; and Pria, still favoring the shoulder she nearly lost the night before, refusing every suggestion that she rest instead of standing watch beside me.
Nobody organized it. That's the part that undoes me a little, watching it happen. Nobody called a meeting and decided the Hollow would close ranks around the Ashveil girl who almost got someone killed for existing here. They simply did it, the way a body closes around a wound without being told to.
"You don't have to hover," I tell Cas, when she's
