Brielle’s POV
We didn't plan to find a secret.
We planned to follow a lead.
To dig through footprints and ash, to piece together what Sylvia tried so hard to bury.
But we found more than a lead.
We found the match.
And now the whole damn forest was dry kindling.
Jade dropped the forged letter onto the table with a sharp flick of her fingers. “There. Proof. Sylvia’s handwriting, Arthur’s name.”
Simon crouched beside the half-rotted chest we'd dragged out of the root cellar near the Silver Glen trail: one Sylvia had denied ever using.
"These patrol maps," he said, voice low, "they’re ours. But these annotations... these aren't."
I leaned over his shoulder.
Circles. Xs. Rotation times. Notes on guard fatigue and blind angles.
My heart thudded once.
Hard.
She hadn’t just fed Arth
