Elijah’s pov
I’d never known quiet to feel so loud. The hush that settled over the war camp in that fleeting moment before dawn pressed on my ears like a physical weight. Every breath I drew tasted of frost and tension, and in the distance I could hear the low murmur of our warriors. Henry’s phalanx lining the eastern pass, Liam’s scouts crouched in the western shrub, and Theo's silent archers perched high on the ridge to the north.
I stood beside Orion at the head of the hollow chamber we’d repurposed as our war room. His broad shoulders, draped in wolfskin, were the only thing that kept me from drowning in doubt. Every eye in the room, I counted fifty captains, lieutenants, and scouts was fixed on us. In those faces I saw hope, fear, exhaustion, and trust. Trust terrified me more than
