Mag-log inAmira’s small, matter-of-fact reports became a quiet, careful ritual over the following weeks — Bonita or Kael asking gently each evening whether her “tummy felt funny,” Amira answering with the same unbothered honesty she brought to every observation about her world. “Not tonight,” she’d say most evenings, already distracted by whatever game or story had captured her attention. Occasionally, though, her answer shifted. “A little,” she reported one evening, nearly three weeks into their careful monitoring. “Not as much as before. It feels far away.” “Further than usual, or closer,” Bonita asked carefully. Amira considered this with her characteristic seriousness. “Closer than last week,” she said. “But not as close as the really cold night.” Corin, documenting each report meticulously, began noticing a pattern emerging from Amira’s increasingly detailed observations. “It’s not constant,” he told the assembled council one evening. “But the frequency and intensity both seem to be i
Corin raised the idea carefully, during a small council session that included only Bonita, Kael, and Ilsa — deliberately excluding wider ears given the sensitivity of what he intended to propose. “I’ve been thinking about Amira’s foresight,” he said. “What Torin witnessed during practice, and other small signs since. I believe there may be practical value in testing whether that ability extends beyond simple combat instinct.” “Meaning what, exactly,” Bonita asked, already wary of where this might lead. “Meaning perhaps she could help us anticipate the Hollow’s return,” Corin said. “If her foresight is genuine, even in its early, limited form, she might sense danger before it fully manifests. That could give us warning we’ve never had before — time to prepare, rather than simply reacting once it’s already upon us.” Bonita felt immediate resistance rise in her chest. “She’s three, Corin. I’m not going to ask my three-year-old daughter to somehow predict an ancient evil’s movements.
The first indication came on an otherwise unremarkable afternoon, nearly three months after Bonita and Kael had committed themselves to better balancing their responsibilities, when Kaden, now approaching his third year, tumbled hard during play in the garden. Bonita heard his cry from across the yard and rushed toward him, expecting the ordinary scrapes and tears that came with an active toddler’s daily tumbles. What she found instead made her breath catch entirely. Kaden sat on the ground, his knee scraped and bleeding, tears streaming down his face — but around the wound itself, faint and barely visible in the afternoon light, something shimmered. A pale, silvery light, pulsing gently in time with his frightened sobs, and even as Bonita watched, the scrape seemed to knit together slightly faster than any ordinary healing should have allowed. “Kael!” she called, scooping her son into her arms, checking the knee more carefully. The bleeding had already slowed considerably, the wou
True to Kael’s word, the following weeks brought genuine change to the household’s rhythm, though achieving it required more deliberate effort than either of them had initially anticipated. Bertram assumed considerably more of Blackthorn’s daily correspondence, freeing Bonita from the exhausting cycle of constant letters that had previously consumed hours of every evening. Maren, given expanded authority to handle routine council matters without requiring Bonita’s direct involvement, proved herself increasingly capable of managing Blackthorn’s day-to-day governance competently. “You’ve earned this trust,” Bonita told her, during one of her now-less-frequent visits to Blackthorn. “I won’t pretend I don’t still watch carefully, Maren. But you’ve proven yourself repeatedly these past months.” “I appreciate that,” Maren said. “Though I understand the caution, given everything this territory has already survived through misplaced trust.” The reduced burden allowed Bonita to honor her p
Blackthorn’s council hall looked exactly as Bonita remembered it — high stone walls, the same heavy doors, the same seats arranged in careful hierarchy. She’d stood in this room once as a woman with nothing, waiting to be told her worth by a man who’d already decided it. Today, Mira walked through those same doors first. She wore simple, dark clothing rather than anything ceremonial, her chin lifted, her eyes moving across the assembled council with the same flat, assessing look she’d given every stranger since she was nine years old. Bonita and Kael walked a step behind her, deliberately, and Bertram and Maren flanked the doorway rather than the throne. The council fell silent as she reached the center of the hall. “Some of you knew my father,” Mira said. Her voice was steady, carrying easily despite her age. “Some of you stood in this room the night he cast out my mother and four sisters because the fifth baby born to him wasn’t a son. I was nine. I remember it.” A few council
The journey back to Kael’s territory carried a different weight than their march toward Blackthorn had — victory achieved, but grief and exhaustion pressing down heavier now that the immediate urgency had finally passed. Drogo traveled bound and heavily guarded, positioned near the rear of the column, stripped of any remaining dignity his position might once have afforded him. Bonita found herself unable to look at him directly during the journey, the aftermath of her earlier fury leaving her drained rather than satisfied, though no less certain of the justice she’d demanded. They reached the settlement three days later, word of their victory having apparently traveled ahead of them, the training yard filled with pack members eager to witness the return of warriors who’d finally ended years of looming threat from Blackthorn’s direction. “The dungeon’s prepared,” Bertram reported, meeting them at the gate. “Secure, isolated, exactly as specified before you departed.” Kael nodded gr







