Kael’s POV
The decision settled into me like cold iron.
No fanfare.
No revelation.
Just the quiet, heavy clarity that came when the path ahead narrowed to one brutal choice.
If they wanted Selene vulnerable, I would let them think she was.
If they wanted Ravaryn weak, I would show them fractures they expected to see — while the real strength gathered in the dark.
Every war I’d ever survived taught the same lesson:
Control the ground, and you control the ending.
So I would.
Even if it meant lying.
Even if it meant lying to her.
---
The fortress woke slowly to another gray morning.
Snow lay thick along the walls, turning battlements into white ridges and softening the edges of stone. The world outside looked smothered.
Inside, tension sharpened everything.
I called Jarek and
