LILA’S POV
The world slowed.
Everything around me thousands of wolves, the council army, the Devourer’s massive shadow faded into the background.
Because the man they threw onto the ground…
Moved.
Barely.
But enough for me to see his face.
Blood streaked across his forehead.
His clothes were torn.
His breathing shallow.
Yet the moment his eyes opened slightly…
My heart stopped.
Because I knew that face.
Not from memories.
Not from the stories the council had forced into history.
But from the portrait that once hung in the abandoned hall beneath the old pack ruins.
The portrait Marcus had once shown me.
The one that had been destroyed the night the council burned the archives.
The man on the ground looked exactly like it.
Seraphine staggered backward.
“No…”
Her voice cr
