Thornridge came into view at midmorning, and my first thought was that it looked smaller than I remembered.
Which was wrong. Nothing had changed. The walls were the same stone, the gates the same iron, the sigil the same wolf trapped in the same thorns. But I had changed, and things look different when you're not afraid of them.
The outer guard saw us when we were still two hundred yards out. I watched them see us. Watched the ripple move through them, one man touching another's arm, heads turning, someone pulling back toward the gate. Going to report.
"Give them thirty seconds," Kael said quietly beside me. "Then they'll open the gate or they won't, and we'll know what we're dealing with."
Twenty-two seconds. The gate opened.
Not because they were welcoming us. Because whoever opened
