As Mira walked down the dark hallway of the Silverfang keep, her steps were quiet.The morning sun filtered weakly through narrow slits, cutting the shadows of the stone walls into sharp lines. Every instinct screamed that something was wrong. Even though Ryker had left her in the chamber hours ago, the bond pulsed faintly, like a heartbeat just beyond her reach, and she could sense it—his restraint, his tension, his lies.
She paused outside the council chamber, heart beating unevenly. Voices came through the cracks in the door, soft but purposeful, and the words they said made her shiver. Elders talked about her in quiet but clear tones. Their language was technical, their cadence measured, but one word snapped through the fog of her mind: execution.
Mira’s stomach lurched. She pressed h
