Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 51 - Chapitre 60

Sable's POVPetra left before nightfall, promising to write when she could,but neither of us made any real plans beyond that. I watched her walk back toward the trading post alone, something unsettled sitting in my chest that I still hadn't fully worked through by the time I made it back to camp.I didn't sleep well that night either. Between the conversation with Petra and the warning still buried in Yarrow's texts, my mind refused to quiet down long enough to rest properly.The horn sounded a little past midnight.I bolted upright, disoriented for a second before the sound registered fully, three long blasts that meant only one thing in this camp. Attack.I scrambled out of my tent into chaos, wolves grabbing weapons, shouting orders, the whole camp lit by scattered torchlight as everyone moved fast toward the eastern edge of the clearing."What's happening?" I shouted, catching sight of Ivy running past."Vaelor," she called back. "They're inside the tree line. Get to the fire pit,

Alaric's POVI came back to myself in pieces, sound before sight, the clash of steel and snarling wolves cutting through the fog pressing down on my skull. Someone had propped me against a wagon wheel at the edge of the field, out of the worst of it but still close enough to hear everything."Don't move," Corwin said, crouched beside me, one hand still gripping my shoulder. "You've been out for a few minutes.""The line," I managed. "Did it hold?""Barely. Vaelor pulled back when a second group hit their flank." He glanced over his shoulder, something uncertain crossing his face. "Not sure who they were. Not ours."I forced my head up, the world swimming before it slowly settled enough to make out shapes across the field. Wolves still moved through the chaos, Ironclaw grey mixed with the darker coats of Vaelor's forces, and further out, past the main clash, something else entirely.Wind tore through a cluster of trees at the field's edge, bending branches nearly sideways. A group of u

Sable's POVI brought it up again the next morning, over breakfast, figuring a public setting might keep the conversation calmer than it had any right to be."I want to come with you," I said. "To the meeting."Rook didn't even look up from what he was eating. "No.""You didn't even think about it.""Don't need to. Answer's the same as it would've been if I had." He finally met my eyes, steady, unmovable. "Corwin asked me to come alone. That's what I'm doing.""He's got information about me, Rook. Doesn't it make sense that I'd want to hear it firsthand instead of secondhand through you?""It makes sense that you want to. Doesn't mean it's smart." He set down his food, giving me his full attention now. "You have no idea what happens if this is a setup? If Ophelia's people are waiting at those crossing stones instead of Corwin alone?""You said yourself you trust him.""I trust the man I knew years ago. People change. Pressure changes people faster than anything else." His voice harden

Sable's POVI didn't sleep after leaving Yarrow's tent. I lay awake staring at the canvas ceiling, running through everything she said, over and over, until the words stopped making sense as language and just became a weight pressing down on my chest.He has been dying by inches since the night he cast it. And so would I, eventually, if nothing changed.Part of me wanted to feel nothing about that. Part of me wanted the old anger to rise up clean and simple, the way it had that first night in the woods when I'd sworn I would never care what happened to him again. He burned a mark into my skin in front of the entire pack. He'd chosen humiliation over honesty, cruelty dressed up as duty. He didn't deserve my concern, let alone whatever piece of me the bond was apparently still willing to sacrifice on his behalf.But every time I tried to settle into that anger, something else crowded in behind it. The way his voice had cracked, faint and broken, in that flash I caught the night I felt h

Corwin's POVGrath caught me near the stables, right as I finished saddling my horse for the ride out. I didn't think anything of it at first, figured he was just passing through on some errand of his own."Lady Rourke needs a word," he said. "Pack security. Says it's urgent.""I've got somewhere to be.""She was clear about it being urgent, sir." Something in his tone should've warned me sooner, that particular flatness men get when they're following orders they rather not be giving. "Won't take long."I hesitated, glancing at the sky, the sun already dropping toward the horizon. The crossing stones sat a good hour's ride out, and I planned my timing carefully to arrive right at sundown. A short delay wouldn't ruin that, not if I kept it brief.That was my mistake, thinking I still had the luxury of choosing how brief it would be.I followed Grath toward the private study, and the second I stepped through the door, two more guards closed in behind me, blocking the exit before I even