(Ava’s POV)
Dominic had been avoiding me for three days. Three long, infuriating days since he came back from that damned herbalist’s hut with smoke in his hair and secrets in his eyes.
Every time I asked what he found, he gave the same smooth, detached answer — nothing worth risking our cover for.
Nothing.
But I wasn’t blind. I’d seen the faint scorch marks on his coat, the blood under his nails. He had found something, and whatever it was, he didn’t trust me with it.
The thought clawed at my chest as I slammed the tent flap open and stepped into the cool morning air. The camp was half-awake — Logan sharpening blades near the fire, Emily crouched by the ridge scanning the horizon. Dominic stood a few feet away, his back turned, eyes fixed on the map spread over a rock. Every line of
