Aria’s POV
The song didn’t stop.
Seven beats. Rest. Seven beats. Rest.
All day. All night. Low enough that you felt it more than heard it. Under your boots, in your ribs, behind your teeth.
The pack stopped calling it “monitoring.” Stopped calling it anything. You don’t name breathing.
Ridah took us up the ridge instead of down. First time in ten years we climbed for no reason except the sun was out.
No blades. No pairs. Just walking.
At the top, the wind hit different. Clean. No metal taste. No ash. Coren spread his map but didn’t mark anything. Lyra braided her hair and left it down. Mara fell asleep on Darian’s shoulder and he didn’t shrug her off. Tav carved, but not wolves. Flowers. Small ones. He left them in the grass.
I sat by the old ward-node. The stone there was s
