Alex’s POV
The wind screamed across the high ridgeline as I stepped to the edge of the watchtower, the world stretched out beneath me like a wound waiting to split open.
The cold bit through my cloak like teeth, slicing through leather and wool and bone-deep weariness. Below, the valley lay in a cradle of darkening light—twilight softening the jagged line of forest and stone. The village nestled beneath the hills, quiet as breath held too long. Smoke curled from crooked chimneys. Lanterns blinked to life, pale and uncertain. Wagons creaked along rain-slick paths like the bones of an old world trying to keep moving.
It looked like peace.
But I knew better.
Peace was a skin stretched thin over a war still breathing.
I pulled my cloak tighter as the wind threatened to tear it from my sh
