The infirmary stank of blood, sweat, and herbs. Warriors lay scattered across wooden cots, their groans echoing through the night. The border battle had ended only hours ago, but its scars were already threatening to claim more lives than the blades and claws that had spilled them.
The healers moved frantically from bed to bed, applying poultices, stitching wounds, whispering desperate prayers to the moon. But it wasn’t enough. Wolfbane-coated arrows had lodged deep in muscle, blackening veins. Broken bones protruded grotesquely. Fever raged.
One of the elder healers, her hands trembling with exhaustion, shook her head over a warrior barely clinging to breath. “He won’t last till dawn.”
Aria stood in the shadows outside the infirmary, her cloak pulled tight around her. Her wolf paced re
