Roxie's POV
"STOP!"
My voice tore out across the pine clearing.
Raptor froze mid-lunge. Tor's blade paused inches from a council enforcer's throat. Pyrrhus, fire already curling at his fingertips, drew in a sharp breath and let it out slow. Every one of my people held still in the spilled gold sunlight, weapons high, ready, watching me.
"Stand down," I said. "All of you. Now."
"Roxie—" Raptor started.
"Stand. Down." I held the lead enforcer's eyes across the clearing. He was breathing hard. His sword had not yet found a body. None of them had. The fight had lived for three seconds, and I needed to kill it before it took its first life.
"You don't understand," I said to my pack, but I did not look away from the enforcer. "I cannot walk into that chamber having spilled the blood of c
