Kael’s POV
Authority, I was learning, wasn’t about command.
It was about endurance — how long you could hold a line while the world around you shifted beneath your feet.
Ravaryn still looked strong from a distance: guards at their posts, fires burning in every hall, banners unbowed against the winter wind.
But strength was an illusion, and illusions only lasted as long as no one dared look too closely.
I could feel it now — the hesitation in the air, the pause in a salute, the way silence followed my orders just a little too long.
Fear had taken root in the pack again, and this time, I couldn’t tell where it ended or where Selene began.
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The council had grown restless.
Elder Thasson’s voice carried sharper edges with each meeting. He’d begun invoking the old laws, the ones that
