Chapter 41

Marina had learned to read silences long before she learned to read people.

Silence before an ambush smelled like held breath and steel. Silence after a lie tasted like copper. But the silence inside Silvain's war room tonight was something else entirely. It pressed against her ribs like a fist from the inside, slow and insistent, looking for a way out.

She stood near the eastern window while Silvain and his lieutenants argued over troop movements. Maps covered every surface. Candles burned low. Outside, Bloodfang Pack territory stretched into the dark forest like a held secret.

She should have been memorizing everything. Position markers. Pack numbers. The supply...