Marcel:
Something was wrong.
Not the loud kind of wrong,
the kind that announces itself with blood and screams. This was quieter. Taut. Like a wire stretched too far, ready to snap the second someone breathed wrong.
I saw it in the way Seraphina paced the corridors, her smile brittle, her eyes sharp with calculation. I saw it in Maddie’s hands, how they trembled when she thought no one was looking, how she flinched at sudden sounds.
They were on edge.
Both of them.
I said nothing.
I knew better than to do so, and right now, I was looking for information. And I wasn’t going to be able to find it with words.
Sometimes silence was the sharper blade, and I preferred to sharpen my blade.
I spent the morning moving through the pack grounds, checking what others overlooked. Water sou
