Chapter 101—The Disappearance

Ravin's POV The council meeting ran longer than expected, which was the only thing about it that surprised me.Everything else went exactly the way these things always went. Long stretches of deliberation that circled back on themselves, Alphas who spoke more than they listened, opinions delivered with the weight of authority that didn't always have the substance to back it up. Decisions that took three times as long to reach as they needed to, for reasons rooted more in politics than logic.I sat through all of it with the patience I kept specifically for rooms where losing it would cost more than holding it.When the session finally closed on the third day I left without lingering. I didn't stop to exchange pleasantries with anyone at the door. I stayed longer than I planned and the discomfort of that sat under my skin for the last two days, quiet and persistent, the kind of thing you couldn't fully name but couldn't ignore either.By the time I got back to Draven the school groun

Chapter 102—Tracing the Absence

Ravin's POV Freya was staring at me.I registered it through the noise of everything moving in my head at once, the quiet alarm in her expression, the way she was standing like she wasn't sure whether to step closer or give me space."Are you okay?" she asked.I didn't answer.My mind was moving too fast to give her anything useful. I was turning everything over, running back through what Freya just told me, trying to find a thread that made sense somewhere in the middle of it all, trying to land somewhere that wasn't the conclusion already forming at the back of everything.Elara. Missing since last night, since the dance. No room, no Eva, nobody who saw where she went or who she left with except Freya catching a glimpse of her near the drinks table early in the evening."Ravin."Freya's voice came through again, closer this time, and I came back to the corridor and the grey morning light and her face looking at me with an expression that was somewhere between worried and frightened

Chapter 103—Catching the Scent

Ravin's POV There was only one thing left to do, everything else, the questions, the conversations, the standing in corridors trying to build a picture out of secondhand information, reached its limit. What Freya gave me was useful and it was nothing at the same time. A starting point with a gap where the rest of the answer should have been.I needed to find the trail myself. That was the only way forward from here, the only move that made sense when secondhand information ran out.I turned and walked in the direction of the grand hall without hesitation.The Silver Moon Dance was last night, which meant the hall was the last confirmed place Elara was seen. It was the only starting point I had, and if her scent was traceable anywhere it would begin there, in the space where she spent the early part of her evening before Freya lost sight of her in the crowd.The grand hall was quiet now, the decorations from the night before still in place but the energy completely gone from the spac

Chapter 104—The Route to Vespera

Ravin's POV The trail didn't waver, that was the thing that told me most clearly that this wasn't a coincidence, wasn't someone wandering or getting turned around in the dark. The scent moved in a straight line, purposeful and deliberate, like someone who knew exactly where they were going and went there without second-guessing the route.I followed it past the first stretch of open land beyond the gate, through the narrow treeline that marked the unofficial boundary between Draven's grounds and the stretch of territory that belonged to no pack in particular, unclaimed land that most students never crossed and most of them didn't know existed.I crossed it.The scent pulled me deeper into the trees, and the further I went the less anything around me looked familiar in the way the school grounds felt familiar after months of walking them. Out here the paths were unmarked and the light came through the canopy in thinner pieces, and the quiet was a different quality to the quiet of th

Chapter 105—Found in the Woods

Ravin's POV She was on the ground, not sitting not leaning against anything. Fully down, on her side, her white gown spread around her in the dirt and the dead leaves, her hair loose across her face, one arm curled beneath her and the other stretched out like she reached for something before she went down.Her body was completely still in the way bodies went still when they weren't choosing to be still, when the choice was taken from them entirely.I crossed the distance between us in seconds and dropped to my knees beside her."Elara."Nothing.I pressed two fingers to the side of her neck and felt for a pulse and found one, faint and fast, the kind that wasn't reassuring because fast and faint together meant something was working too hard to keep up with whatever was happening inside her. I moved my hand to her forehead and the heat that came off her skin made me pull back for half a second before I pressed my palm flat against it.She was burning.Not the warmth of someone who ra

Chapter 106—A Lethal Encounter

Ravin's POV I found it further left than I expected, tucked low against the base of a mossy embankment where the soil was darker and the moisture sitting underneath kept the undergrowth dense and close to the ground.Moonroot. Wide flat leaves, the slightly silvered underside catching the dim light filtering through the canopy above. I knew it the moment I saw it, and right now that was the only thing that mattered.I dropped to my knees and pulled a generous handful free from the stems without wasting any time being careful about it, and then I was back on my feet and moving.I ran.The path back to Elara felt longer than the path away from her and I knew that was just the weight of the seconds between finding the leaves and getting them into her, the kind of time that expanded when you couldn't afford to let it. Every step felt like it was costing something I didn't have to spare.I pushed through the undergrowth and came back into the small clearing where I left her and dropped do