The night after the council did not feel calm.
The fortress was quiet, yet something beneath the silence moved like a slow river under ice. Wolves kept their distance without being told, and even the guards spoke in lower voices as if the air carried memory of what had happened in the chamber.
Raya stood at the balcony outside their room and let the cold wind press against her skin. The mountains stretched dark and endless, and the moon hung low and heavy, silver light spilling across stone and forest.
She should have felt powerful.
Instead she felt exposed.
The moment with Derek replayed in her mind. The single breath where he could not move. The shock in his eyes. The awareness that her instinct could reach farther than she understood.
Behind her, the door opened quietly.
She did
