The battlefield smelled of iron and fire.
Not all wounds bled. Some lingered in the silence after screams stopped.
Aria stood among the fallen.
The Academy’s stone courtyard was scorched in places, cracked where claws had torn through earth and tile. Wolf blood darkened the dirt. Most of it wasn’t theirs—but not all of it belonged to the enemy.
She crouched beside a trainee from the eastern wing. Eren. Seventeen. She remembered his smirk during training sessions, the way he always tripped on his own enthusiasm. Now his chest was still.
Kade found her there, his voice low.
“Thorne’s calling a gathering. The dead deserve their names.”
She nodded, but her throat wouldn’t open.
Kade didn’t press. He only knelt beside her, silent, his hand brushing hers with warmth that steadied her hea
