Chapter Forty-One: Return to the Wildlands

Vuko POV

The moonlight casts shadows everywhere and something in the stillness makes me anxious. There is no movement other than mine and Ana's. There are no calls of owls or other nightbirds, no small creatures scurrying through the undergrowth. In the silence our movements sound too loud.

Beneath the scent of pine leaves and earth is another smell. The sweet-foul smell of rotting things. Death.

What has happened here?

"Look," whispers Ana, pointing through the trees to the training ground.

The training ground has been closed off by an enormous silver cage. What madness is this?

"The prisoners are enclosed in the silver cage," she says. "My father ..." I hear the catch in her voice as she pauses. "... My father and the other Alphas as well as anyone who opposed Abir's takeover." She turns to me, takes my hands in hers. "Vuko, there's something else ..."

I close my eyes, not wanting to hear it but knowing it wa