Dawn was still far off; only the embers blinked in the fire, and the fog settled over the camp as if it wanted to smother every breath. I sat beside Seraphine, one eye on the entrance, while the stillness beyond the pines had long since seeped into our ears. It was the kind of silence that always comes before something happens.
The wolf in me was taut. I didn’t know why, only that something was wrong. And when a single, muffled cry tore through the thick air from afar—not the sentries’ passphrase, but a scream before death—I didn’t have to think anymore.
“Rogues.” The word had barely left my mouth before I was moving.
Sera sprang up too, her eyes flashing violet in the half-light. She didn’t ask, didn’t wait for orders. She knew. As we stepped out of the tent, the air filled with the sm
