Jake's POV
Silvermoon was quieter than usual.
Not peaceful,just… quieter. Like a storm had passed, and everyone was waiting to see if the clouds would come back.
Sylvia was gone. The elders had made it official, her banishment inked in council record and sealed with a quiet finality. Her name was no longer whispered in the halls with fear or deference.
But not all ghosts vanished with exile.
Some lingered in the people who had known her. Some clung to the ones she’d hurt.
And some, I realized, lingered in Brielle.
She hadn’t said much since the vote. She moved like someone going through the right motions, saying the right things, training hard, sleeping little. But something about her was too careful. Too still.
Like she was watching for something.
Or someone.
I felt it most in
