Chapter 63
The compound had never felt smaller than it did the morning after the body. Corridors that had once held the comfortable noise of training and banter now echoed with quiet conversations that stopped the second you walked by. Faces that used to look at me with the lazy, indifferent curiosity of new blood now flicked away, calculating, measuring. The word mark floated through the air like a curse, and every time someone said it I felt the hair on my arms stand up. Dastien moved through the compound with that tight, dangerous efficiency that made everyone else part of the scenery. He gave orders, barked suggestions, and took in reports with an expression that never softened. I watched him from the edge of the training yard—watching him had become something of a habit, and I couldn’t help mys
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