LOGINI recognized Vivianne immediately, her voice was low, tense, and unmistakably angry. I stopped and glanced at Amara and she understood without needing an explanation, and together we moved quietly toward the doorway. We remained just inside the chamber, hidden from view as Rowan and Vivianne spoke farther down the corridor. “I told you that you should not have mentioned the archives,” Vivianne said.
Rowan answered in a low, irritated voice. “They were going to investigate me anyway.”His face lost some of its color. “I was never supposed to see that,” he whispered.He rubbed both hands over his face and leaned back against the wall. “Once or maybe twice. People like me weren’t supposed to know it existed. The black stone was as high as most of us ever reached. We received instructions through intermediaries, carried messages, watched borders, gathered information, moved supplies, and reported what we saw. We knew there were people above the ones giving us orders, but we weren’t told who they were.”“And the mark?” I asked.Corvin stared at the document for several seconds before finally answering. “It belonged to them, some people called them the Keepers. I don’t know whether that was their true name. Different groups used different names, and people like me were never important enough to know which one was correct. What I do know is that they were concerned with old bloodlines, old territories, and the prophecy.”I kept my gaze on
He rubbed his bound hands together. “That your mother had learned something she was never supposed to discover. Something that could expose people who had spent generations keeping the prophecy buried. They believed that if she continued searching, she would eventually identify the bloodline and bring the prophecy back into the open.”My throat tightened. “Whoever they were, they were afraid of her.”The answer hurt because it sounded exactly like my mother. She had never been someone who walked away simply because powerful people told her to. She had protected Silvercrest until the end, even when the people around her had turned against her.I looked toward the black-stone symbol etched into the metal disc resting on the table outside the chamber. “So the network wasn’t created because of Rowan.”“No, Rowan and Vivianne was only one part of it.” The word settled heavily between us.I took a slow breath. “Then there were people above both of them.” I turned away from Corvin and walked
When he saw me enter, he lowered his gaze. I took the chair opposite him while Gabriel remained near the door. For several seconds, neither of us spoke. I wanted him to feel the weight of the silence before I asked anything. “You asked to speak with me,” I said.The prisoner nodded slowly. “I did.”“I assume you understand that whatever you tell me will determine what happens to you. If you’re hoping for protection, information is the only thing you have that can buy it.” I said.He swallowed and rubbed his bound hands against his knees. “I want to live.”“Then tell me the truth.” I said.His eyes lifted to mine. “My name is Corvin Hale, my family lived in the northern territories for generations,” he said after a pause. “But we stopped belonging to any one pack a long time ago.”“And the black stone?” I asked.His expression tightened. He looked down at his hands before answering. “It’s not a pack. It’s a network. Families, former warriors, traders, messengers, and people scattered a
There were no names, signatures, or explanations, but there were markings. The same broken circle and the same narrow line through its center. Beneath several of the markings were numbers that appeared to correspond with locations around Silvercrest.That evening, Gabriel spread the documents across the council table. “They’ve been mapping our movements,” he said.I studied the pages carefully. “There are patrol routes here and the western supply road.” I looked at another sheet and felt my stomach tighten. “The council hall.”Gabriel nodded grimly. “They’ve been watching us for longer than we thought.”The realization settled heavily over me. The people we had captured weren’t random trespassers. They had information about Silvercrest that could only have been gathered by someone who had been observing us for some time, and they clearly weren’t alone. “What about the other sightings?” I asked.Gabriel’s expression hardened. “We’re checki
Later that night, I returned to my mother’s old study. The room had remained untouched for years, and I had avoided spending too much time there because every object seemed to carry a memory. But now I needed to think like an investigator rather than a grieving daughter. I saw another of my mothers journals hidden away under one of the old tables and I turned through the pages. My mother’s handwriting filled the paper with notes about Silvercrest’s administration, people she distrusted, old disputes, and questions she had never managed to answer. I stopped when I reached one of the pages she had marked with a small crescent. There was no explanation beside it, only a list of names. Some belonged to Silvercrest officials I already knew, while others were unfamiliar. One name caught my attention because it had been crossed out so heavily that the paper beneath it was almost torn. I ran my finger over the ink, trying to understand why my mother had marked
My mother had left me more than a position. She had left me a home worth fighting for, and now at last, I was ready to fight for it. The first days of my leadership were filled with work rather than celebration. Silvercrest had survived years of corruption, but surviving was not the same as recovering, and I quickly discovered that there were more problems beneath the surface than the council records had revealed. Food stores had to be counted again because the previous numbers could not be trusted, several homes near the western settlement needed repairs, and the medical stores were dangerously low. The warriors also needed new patrol schedules because the border posts had been neglected under Rowan’s administration.I spent most of my days moving from one problem to another, listening to people who had grown accustomed to having their concerns ignored. For the first time, I began to understand what my mother must have carried when she led Silvercrest. It was never simply the title;







