The forest east of the Thirstfang Cliffs was unnaturally quiet.
No birds.
No rustling leaves.
No wind.
Just the pulse of distant thunder and the blood-deep knowing in Kael's bones that he was no longer hunting.
He was being summoned.
He dismounted in silence, leaving his horse tethered to a dead tree.
His armor was scorched and dented from the siege at Silverbane, but he hadn’t removed it.
He hadn’t slept in a day and a half.
It didn’t matter.
Because none of it compared to the weight in his chest.
The weight of the name that had found him in a sealed letter:
“If you want the truth, come alone.—General Vaeron Blackclaw”
Vaeron.
Once Kael’s commander.Once his mentor.Once the only man he had admired enough to follow blindly into war.
And the first to betray everything.
It had
