(Bardolph POV)
I stared at the black feather on the floor, and every story my father had left behind suddenly looked like a painted wall hiding rot.
A brother.
A hidden uncle.
A living monster who knew my father’s crimes, Ashina’s blood, Rudina’s death, and Daciana’s stolen birth.
My father had raised me on songs of honor, border duty, and the sacred burden carried by Blackfang Alphas.
Now those songs sounded like prayers spoken over graves he had dug himself.
Daciana stood near the silver circle, pale but unbent, and I saw the cost of every truth landing on her shoulders.
She had lost a mate.
She had found a mother.
She had learned her mother was killed by my bloodline.
Now another man wearing my family’s eye had called her one of his children.
I wanted to tell her I would fix
