Arielle's POV
Seraphina was taken into pack custody that night.
Not Nightshade Pack custody. We were not her pack and had no formal authority over her. But Kieran, notified by urgent messenger, responded within twelve hours with a formal request that she be held on neutral ground until Silvercrest guards could collect her.
Lucien agreed.
In the eighteen hours she was in Nightshade holding, she asked twice to speak to me. Twice I said no.
Not because I was afraid of what she would say. Because I had nothing left to give to that conversation. Everything I needed to say to her, I had said at the tree line.
What came after the Shadow Queen's dissolution was quieter than I had expected.
I had anticipated something dramatic. A wave of feeling, release, the particular storm that comes when
