The first light through the veil was dim, as though the sky outside hadn’t fully decided to rise. Inside the compound, people moved quietly. Wolves stretched and checked weapons, witches walked the ward-lines with chalk in hand, and mothers rocked newborns while fighting their own exhaustion.
Ravyn woke between Grayson and Cassian. For a moment it felt like an ordinary morning, but the memory of last night returned quickly. Valerius had pressed the bond. Cassian had gone rigid against it. Alaric had laid his hand on his father’s chest and shifted the weight until it slid away.
She kissed the boys where they lay on their pallet and slipped into the hall.
⸻
Kitchen with Iris and Moira
The mess room smelled of coffee and eggs. Iris was at the stove, moving with the quick, efficient rhyth
