*Chapter 44:
ALESSIA
Dawn in BloodNight didn’t feel like dawn, It felt like the world had held its breath through Night 3 and forgotten how to let it out right. The sky was pale and washed-out, the kind of light that made everything look a little too sharp and a little too exposed. The wards along the border were back in place, but they hummed wrong under my skin, like a song played half a beat off-key and you could feel it if you were listening. Most of the pack didn’t know why their sleep had been restless, why their dogs had been pacing the yard at 3 a.m., but their bodies knew. Trust doesn’t break all at once, It frays at the edges first, in glances that linger too long and conversations that stop when I walk past.
Blackwell didn’t sleep, I found him in the courtyard before the su
