(Isla)
I don’t sleep that night, and honestly, I don’t know how I could, not after everything that happened, not after Darius called me Thorn, after Kieran told me the truth about Elira, and especially not after Nyra has been pacing restlessly inside my head ever since the rider left.
She’s close, Nyra says again, her voice low and certain as she moves through my thoughts like a restless shadow. I can feel her.
“Who?” I whisper into the darkness, even though a part of me already knows the answer.
Her.
I’m back in my cot, curled beneath Elara’s blanket with the baby warm against me, one hand resting protectively over my stomach as I stare through the darkness toward the small window. The moon is waning now, no longer full and bright enough to illuminate the entire forest, leaving only
