CHAPTER 61— THE NIGHT OF WHISPERS
Third POV
Night fell like a closing fist.
The air over the Shadowdark Keep grew colder than it should have—too sharp, too thin, as if something was inhaling the warmth from the world.
Gabriella didn’t sleep.
She couldn’t.
Not with the council still echoing in her blood.
Not with the Devourer’s mark pulsing beneath her skin.
Not with the strange sensation that someone—
something—
was watching her from the cracks of the night.
She stood at the balcony railing, overlooking the western forest where the border wards shimmered faintly like a curtain of dim starlight.
A breeze swept past.
And with it…
A whisper.
Faint.
Scraping.
Not human.
“Little vessel…”
Gabriella jerked, heart hammering against her ribs.
Ava snarled from inside her head li
