Semua Bab Marked and Cast Out, She Came Back Untouchable : Bab 101 - Bab 110

Sable's POVThe pack gathered again three weeks after the battle, this time for something that didn't carry the weight of confession or judgment behind it. Alaric had spent the past several days preparing for this particular ceremony with more care than I'd seen him put into anything since his own recovery, drafting speeches he kept scrapping, pacing his study late into the night until I finally told him to just say what he actually meant instead of dressing it up."You're overthinking this," I said, watching him rewrite the same paragraph for the third time."It matters, Sable. Corwin's earned this properly, and I want to say it right.""Then stop writing it like a formal decree and just tell him the truth. That usually works better for you these days."He laughed at that, setting the parchment aside, and by the time the courtyard filled that afternoon, he apparently took my advice, standing on the platform without a single scrap of pape

Sable's POVThe treasury turned out to be a smaller crisis than it first sounded, missing coin traced mostly to legitimate wedding preparations Ophelia had authorized before anyone knew to question her spending. Corwin and the stewards spent two days sorting it out properly, and by the time they finished, the losses looked survivable rather than catastrophic. Small mercy, in a season that hadn't offered many.I should have felt relieved. Instead, something else had been chewing at me since overhearing a conversation I wasn't meant to catch.It happened outside the council chamber, two Elders speaking low, unaware I stood close enough around the corner to hear every word."Naming her Luna outright feels premature," one of them had said. "Whatever she's become, however impressive the storm, the pack watched her stand on that platform as a rejected omega weeks ago. That image doesn't just disappear because the bond reversed.""Agreed," the o

Sable's POVYarrow left the next morning, and I spent most of that day walking the training grounds alone, turning her words over in my head until they started to settle into something I could actually carry instead of something that just weighed me down.Three weeks passed after that, since a pack this size never fully stopped moving, but quiet in the way that felt earned rather than fragile. Alaric handled council matters with a steadiness I hadn't seen from him even before his decline started, Corwin settled into his new rank like he'd been born for it, and I spent my mornings training with Ironclaw's own healers, passing along what Yarrow had taught me piece by piece.Then a scout came in fast one afternoon, dust thick on his boots, breathless in a way that made my stomach drop the second I saw him crossing the courtyard."Where's Corwin?" he called out."Here." Corwin appeared from the direction of the barracks, already alert. "What is it?""Vaelor scouts. Small group, maybe eigh

Sable's POVIvy showed up three days before the Ceremony, hauling a trunk half her own size and grinning like she'd been planning this arrival for weeks."You couldn't have sent word you were coming?" I asked, hugging her tight enough that she laughed and shoved me back."And miss the look on your face? Not a chance." She glanced around the courtyard, taking in the preparations already underway, garlands strung along the walls, tables being carried out for the feast that would follow. "Damn. This place actually looks alive again.""It's been a slow few months getting there.""Worth it, from the looks of things." Her eyes settled on me properly then, something warm replacing the teasing. "You look happy, Sable.""I think I am."Rook arrived the day after, quieter about it, though he pulled me into a hug that lasted a beat longer than strictly necessary before he stepped back, composed again."Congratulations," he said. "I mean that.""Thank you for coming.""I wouldn't have missed it."

Sable's POVIvy stayed a week, long enough that I spent most evenings dragging Corwin into good-natured teasing about dinners he swore weren't as significant as she described, which only made everyone more convinced they absolutely were. By the time she left, riding out with a wave and a promise to visit again soon, Rook had apparently agreed to accompany her back through Ironclaw's gates one more time, ostensibly to finalize some border paperwork.Nobody believed that excuse anymore, least of all him.Alaric found me that evening on the small balcony off our chambers, watching the last of the sunset bleed orange across the western hills, the same direction Bastian's forces had once come pouring through in the worst night either of us had lived through."You've been quiet since Ivy left," he said, joining me at the railing."Just thinking.""About Rook and Corwin?""A little." I smiled, the warmth of it still sitting pleasant in my chest. "Mostly about how strange it is, watching peop