Semua Bab Rejected But Elevated : Bab 81 - Bab 85

Cassie's PovThe lists were trying to kill me. Not with a sword, but with words. Each name was a weight. I felt like I was drowning in paper.Then I heard it.Music. Real music. Not a war drum. A fiddle and laughter.I dropped my pen. It was a stupid list anyway. The dead already knew they were dead. I went to the window.Down in the courtyard, my pack was choosing to live.The firelight painted everything gold. People were dancing. Actually dancing. My shoulder gave a mean throb. The sling was off, but the scar was a nasty reminder. A present from my sister.“You planning to hide up here all night?”Mark. He stood in the doorway with two cups. They smelled like cinnamon and trouble.“I’ve got work,” I said, but it was a lie. My heart was down there with the music.“The work can wait. They need to see your face, Cassie. They need to know you made it.” He shoved a cup into my hand. It was warm. “When’s the last time you had fun?”I didn’t answer. I couldn’t remember.“Come on.” He off

The air in the Vale archives was thick and still, heavy with the scent of crumbling parchment and cold stone. Daisy pressed herself into the shadows of the wall, the rough-hewn rock biting into her back. She held her breath, counting the slow, fading footsteps of the patrol. One heartbeat. Two. The sound melted into the mountain’s silence. Now. Move. She slipped from her hiding place. Her father’s voice was a ghost in her ear, a lesson from a lifetime ago: “The oldest wards don’t shout, little wolf. They hum. Find the frequency, and you can walk through the noise.” Her fingers, delicate and sure, traced the symbols carved deep into the oak doorframe. To her eyes, the unique vision of a hybrid—the magic wasn’t a solid wall. The air rippled. The ward didn’t shatter; it sighed, parting like a weary curtain. She didn’t hesitate. Her feet carried her to the heart of the chamber, to a circle of stone wolves frozen in eternal snarls. And there, on a pedestal of night-black marbl