ANMELDENCHAPTER 16Avery's POVBy the gray hours before dawn, I stood by the window and watched the outer wall for the second time.I waited through the day, ate the bread and mutton stew the silent girl had brought. If I was going to die escaping, I might as well die with something in my stomach. A little extra weight couldn't hurt.When the sky lowered and the air turned sharp, the fortress grew cold, and that was when I moved.I pulled out the cloak from yesterday. The rip along the hem was still there, and somewhere in the eastern corridor a scrap of that same fabric might already be lying where I had snagged it. If anyone had found it, this run would end before it began, so I couldn’t wait another night to find out.I glanced around the room, there was nothing else to pick. The corridor outside my door was empty as predicted, so I kept to the wall and took the eastern hallway. It had fewer people but it was more risky. Two times I squeezed myself into the shadow of a doorway while guar
CHAPTER 15Avery’s POVSleep came in small, useless pieces.Every time I drifted, Lena's words returned, playing over and over until I couldn't tell if I was remembering or still hearing her.Some lessons are clearer when you watch them happen to someone else.Which was a very polite way of saying: We killed someone in front of you so you would behave. Morning light seeped through my windows and my head throbbed so hard I could feel it moving in my skull. My throat was dry. I sat up, waited for the room to stop tilting, and reached for the stone jug on the table. I didn't remember finishing a jug of water, it must have been the fear. I stared at the door. The silent girl might not come for hours, and I was not going to sit here turning into dust out of good manners. I took the jug, walked to the door, and knocked.“Anyone there? I need water.”There was no response.I knocked three more times until the silence started to feel personal. I tried the handle, and it opened so easily I
CHAPTER 14Avery’s POVThe door shut behind me and I sank onto the edge of the bed, the mattress dipping under my weight.For a few minutes, I didn’t move, because even the four corners of this room couldn’t keep the courtyard out.I let out a long breath. I didn't know if it was relief that it had not been me or the heavier knowledge that this place was not finished with me.I told myself I had seen worse. Sunset Pack had never spared anyone, executions were not something new, and I had grown up watching punishments from the edge of the crowd while being told it was justice.But the memory that surfaced was from the darkest part of my mind I never want to ever open again.A girl in a brown dress standing in the crowd, someone's elbow digging into my side, and two figures made to kneel on a stump, a man and a woman. I remembered what the wood looked like, dark stains on it. I never saw when the blade fell. Someone had gripped me from behind and dragged me away. I only remembered the
CHAPTER 13Avery's POVI was still pulling on the second boot when Nora started walking.“Hurry up. Don’t make me come back in,” she called back over her shoulder. I followed without even closing the door. The corridor that had been empty the night before was now full of servants and omegas moving quickly, heads down. Doors that had stood unguarded yesterday were now posted with warriors. Everyone seemed to know what was happening, but I was the only one still in the dark.I hurried my steps to keep up with her. “What is going on?”Nora didn’t bother looking back. “You’ll see. Just keep walking.”Helpful as always. Something about the way she said it made me walk faster.We stepped into the courtyard and my feet slowed at once.The wooden post I had seen from the window now stood upright in the center. Chains lay coiled on the ground. The small cart waited to one side. Guards circled the open space. The crowd was large, yet the silence was absolute. No one dared to shift without pu
CHAPTER 12Avery’s POVMy legs would not move.The gate stood only a few paces away, open and unguarded in the way that mattered. I had walked all the way here, no guard had drawn a blade, no one had stopped me, so by every measure I should have kept going.Instead, I stood there like a plant rooted into the ground.A sudden flash of anger surged through my chest. I turned and looked back at the fortress, half expecting whatever illusion this was to break, guards running, someone shouting my name, the whole pack remembering I existed.Nothing happened.I had gotten what I wanted, the door had been unlocked and the guards had looked away, but I had never felt more like a fool in my entire life.Even gamblers got to keep their shoes.I looked down at my bare feet, dirty from the courtyard stones. I had no coin, no food, no clear plan or a slightest idea of how far the next village might be, or whether the northern roads would even let a lone wolfless woman pass. I had been brought here
CHAPTER 11 Avery's POVSeveral days passed, and I lost count of how long I’d been stuck in this room. The only thing I could track was the passing of the dark.Meals arrived regularly alongside the medicine, brought by the same maid who had refused to say a single word the day I arrived. I hadn't seen Lena since then. The girl never fully stepped into the room; she would drop the tray several feet from the door and leave so quickly you'd think I was a ghost out to bite her. Sometimes I only woke up to find the tray already sitting there. It nagged at me. Why was she so terrified of me? Was she just another fear-ridden slave, treating everyone with the same quiet panic? Once, when I heard the lock turning, I stood near the doorway hoping to ask about Lena. The girl simply stared at me with wide eyes and bolted down the hall.Most days were spent sleeping heavily or taking warm baths that cut through the deep chill in my bones. My wound had finally healed, and the bleeding had stop







