Lucas's POV
The message arrived nailed to the northern gate, before dawn, discovered by a patrol during a routine sweep.
I brought it to Damien myself, unwilling to let anyone else see it before he did.
A single black feather, tied with red thread. No words. No signature needed.
"Marek," Damien said grimly, turning the feather over in his hands.
"It's not an attack," I said. "Just a message. He wants us to know he's still watching."
"He wants us to be afraid," Damien corrected. "Which means he wants a reaction. I don't intend to give him one."
"And if he escalates?"
Damien's jaw tightened, gray eyes hard with the particular calculation I'd watched him develop over a difficult year of exactly this kind of threat.
"Then we respond proportionally, and only when he actually crosses a
