For one endless moment, Kaelion did not move. The entire Hall seemed suspended around that hesitation. Torchlight crackled weakly against stone walls. Snow-laden wind screamed somewhere beyond the high windows.
The salt circle glowed steadily beneath my feet, bathing the floor in pale silver light that made every face in the chamber appear gaunt and ghostlike and Kaelion, the Alpha , the man who had ruled through fear for a decade, stood frozen before one simple command.
Step forward.
It should have been easy If he were innocent. The realization spread quietly through the room like poison slipping into water.
No one said it aloud.
They did not need to.
I saw it in the Elders’ eyes.
In the subtle shift of guards exchanging uncertain glances. In Elder Halima’s rigid stillness near the
