Kael’s POV
By dawn, the fortress already reeked of unease.
Servants whispered in corners. Courtiers spoke in hushed tones that silenced the moment I entered a hall. Even the guards—men I had trained myself—avoided my gaze, their loyalty bent under the weight of fear.
Fear was my father’s favorite weapon. It spread faster than fire, and it burned deeper.
I had seen it before—right before he began his purges, years ago, when he accused his own Beta of treason and gutted half the inner circle to make an example. The same tension hung in the air now.
And I knew, without being told, that this time the suspicion pointed toward me.
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I found Jarek in the war room, hunched over a table cluttered with maps and sealed letters. The fire cast long shadows across the stone, and the smell of in
