Caelum's POV
I rode back into Ashveil territory two days later, exhausted in a way that has nothing to do with the distance covered, and I didn't wait for morning, didn't wait to compose myself properly, and didn't do any of the careful, patient things three years of council politics have taught me to do before making an accusation this large.
I went straight to the council chamber and called an emergency session.
It's a mistake. I know it's a mistake within the first five minutes, watching the elders file in bleary and irritated, roused from their beds for an alpha who vanished without explanation for the better part of a week and has now returned, demanding their immediate attention. But I've spent two days riding with Mira's coded instructions burning a hole in my coat pocket, and I
