For one terrible second, the entire world stopped.
The courtyard below was packed with wolves.
Guards.
Patrol leaders.
Kitchen workers pulled from their beds.
Council members rushing from the eastern wing.
Dozens of people.
Dozens of witnesses.
And every single one of them was staring at the man standing in the center of Moonridge.
The man who should not have existed.
The man with silver eyes.
The man who had somehow entered the most heavily guarded packhouse in the region without triggering a single alarm.
Lucien.
My pulse thundered in my ears.
Beside me, Aria went completely still.
Not frozen.
Not shocked.
Something worse.
Resigned.
Like she had spent years expecting this moment and had
finally run out of places to hide from it.
"Lyra."
Her voice was barely above a
