Chapter 25: The Quiet Shield
--- The warning did not arrive as fear. It arrived as wrongness. Skyler felt it in the hours before dawn, when the forest should have been still, when the bond between her and Kaden pulsed quiet but alert. The wind carried too many voices. The earth itself seemed to hold its breath. She rose, hand resting over her heart, and felt him before she saw him. Kaden was already awake, seated at the table in his chambers, maps spread before him, eyes scanning paths, patrol lines, and border weak points. He looked up the moment she entered, gaze steady, voice low. “You feel it too,” he said. She nodded, fingers brushing lightly over the maps. “Someone is lying. Not clumsily. Carefully.” No names were spoken. They didn’t need to be. Skyler traced the invisible threads of deception, noting
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