Chapter Thirty-Five
Dawn broke across the valley in streaks of gold and ash. The morning mist clung to the ridges like gauze, softening the sharp lines of the terrain but doing nothing to quiet the tension thickening within the council grounds.
Lyra’s fingers tapped lightly against the railing as she watched the wolves below. The pack had grown restless overnight, sensing more than their human counterparts, their instincts keyed into the faintest shifts in bond energy. Every movement of Cain and Elias rippled through them, invisible yet unmistakable.
Elias stood a few steps behind her, observing the same scene with that same uncanny calm. The fragment of the Shadow pulsed faintly in his mind — subtle, almost imperceptible — but its presence made him colder. Sharper. Perfectly logical. A
