Sleep didn’t come for two days after we opened that door.
It wasn't because I lacked exhaustion. I was tired down to my marrow—the kind of deep, hollow fatigue that settles in your teeth and makes everything taste like dust. But every single time I let my eyelids fall, my mother's handwriting flared in the dark. For Aurora. When she's ready. When she chooses. I would jerk my eyes open, stare blindly at the ceiling, and try to fathom what on earth I was supposed to do with a book telling me we weren't alone in the world.
Other wolves. Other bloodlines. Entire lineages that had absolutely nothing to do with the Silver Wolves, the Bond, or any history we knew.
Cassian did everything he could to get me to rest. He brought up hot tea. He coaxed me to eat. He lay next to me in the dark for ho
