Chapter 81
Zeraphine's POV
The fire crackled softly in the dimly lit chamber, casting flickering shadows along the rough stone walls. The scent of burning wood curled through the air, warm and familiar, but it did little to ease the weight pressing against my chest. The flickering glow illuminated Rakura’s face, making the hard lines of her features seem even sharper, but it wasn’t her stare that unsettled me.
It was everything else.
Something had shifted. I felt it in the way the air carried a heaviness that hadn’t been there before, in the way the pack moved around me—not with the usual quiet dismissal, but with something new. Something that felt like calculation.
I had lived in the shadows of these walls long enough to know when I was being watched.
The hesitant glances. The way c
