Ella’s POV
The morning after the council's grim deliberations dawned grey and heavy, as though the sky itself bore the weight of what was to come. The Keep was quiet, yet I felt the stir of something deep beneath—the calm before the storm.
I didn't wait for Remo to summon me. I found him in the War Room, already surrounded by parchment maps, sigils inked in black, and silver-plated weapons humming faintly with enchantments. He was tracing his thumb over a worn path etched across the borderlands—the edge of the Greywood.
He didn't look up when I stepped in, but I felt the slight shift in the air, the way his posture tensed for a breath before settling again. "You're early," he said, voice low.
"I couldn't sleep."
He finally lifted his gaze. There was something raw in his eyes—controlle
