Arielle's POV
On the fifth day Kieran came to the camp.
Not to fight. Not diplomatically. He came alone, on foot, which in pack terms was a significant statement of non-threat, and he came to the secondary camp rather than the main border position, which meant he had been tracking where we were with enough precision to suggest he had been watching for a while.
Lucien's expression when the scout brought word was unreadable.
Mine, I suspected, was not.
Kieran arrived looking like a man who had not slept in the same number of days we had not slept, which was to say he looked like a man who was holding himself together with the structural integrity of purpose and not much else. The war was costing Silvercrest in ways that went beyond strategic. I could see it in his face.
He stood at the
