The defectors' return should have been a victory.
Lena had brought them back. Seven lost souls, seven people who had wandered into darkness and found nothing there but cold and hunger and fear. They had returned to the camp with tears on their faces and apologies on their lips, and the army had welcomed them with open arms. Wolves growled their forgiveness. Vampires nodded their acceptance. Hybrids embraced their returning brothers and sisters as if they had never left.
Instead, the return felt like the calm before a storm.
The seven could not stop trembling. They spoke in whispers of what they had seen in Damon's camp, of the rituals Lilith demanded, of the price of her power. One of them, the young wolf Lena had trained herself, woke screaming every night from dreams he could not reme
