I couldn’t sleep. Not even for a second. All night, I just stared at the message scratched beneath my window:
HE IS NOT THE ONE YOU SHOULD FEAR.
Those words stuck in my head, chewing at me. Who wrote them? How long had they been there? Why my room? And if Kael wasn’t the one I should be afraid of—then who was?
By sunrise, I’d made up my mind. I was leaving. I didn’t care what Kael said. I didn’t care about the guards camped outside my door. I’d spent enough time letting other people decide what I was allowed to do. First, my pack called me cursed. Then, they decided I deserved to die. Now Kael wanted to lock me inside a fortress, all for my so-called “protection.”
Maybe he was right. Maybe he wasn’t. But I couldn’t just stay and rot while everyone else guarded secrets from me.
I opene
