Ayla's POV
I didn't cry.
But something shifted inside me and settled somewhere deep — quiet and heavy, like a stone dropped into still water. The ripples kept moving outward, touching everything, refusing to stop.
Kael had handled what he could. He traced the source of the images to a dead end; whoever was behind them knew how to hide. Most of the posters came down. Not all. Enough of them lingered that I'd seen it on people's faces in the hallway—that look of having seen something they weren't supposed to and enjoying it anyway.
He and his brothers were still working on it. I didn't ask how. I didn't need to know the details. I just needed to know they were moving, and they were.
Tala stirred beneath my skin, restless and coiled.
"Run," she said. Not a suggestion.
I closed my eyes
