Marked by the alpha king I was meant to destroy

lence that felt more like uncertainty than protocol. Mira decided not to comment on

ticed the significance before anyone bothered explaining it to her. Close enough for convenience,

, wide-eyed, clearly drawn for this duty by lot rather than preference - assigned to "attend" to her, which seemed to mean re

me she caught the girl lingering in the doorway rather

the maid said, with the blunt honesty of someone too young

ted. "I like you.

et

he room properly for the first time - fine furniture, a real hearth, a wardrobe stocked with clothes clearly meant for so

areful, gone before Mira could fully read it. "

rest

'd have filed a scent trail worth following later. Everyone in this fortress, she was beginni

ress, she learned, mo

n. She wasn't allowed weapons, which she found almost funny, given that she'd already demonstrated she didn't need one to be dangerous. She wasn't allowed past the fortress gates without an escort, which she

fury and exhaustion. He hadn't spoken to her since the hall - not directly, not since she'd unraveled his land-grab scheme in front of half th

said. "Is that against the rules t

onan said, low and tight. "Not a

n quietly absorbing?" Mira tilted her head, deliberately light, watching the muscle in his ja

front of the entire co

ne tried to have me executed with a lie," Mira said, all the

or anyone passing. "Two days. That's all it's taken. I've fought beside Darius for twelve years. I've never once seen him let an accusation like yours stand unanswered in his own ha

bly wise on his part, because she didn't yet hav

one of the few places in the fortress, she'd discovered, where no one had

you," he said.

ls fast in

e low stone wall a careful distance from her, closer than a strange

should think carefully about what I do with that." She

rder two nights ago I wouldn't have given a week earlier. I know I've spent more time thinking about a stranger's opinion of me in the last two days th

fort

ay it as a

it feel heavier than it should have. Mira looked away first, toward the small, neglected flowerbed

d instead, changing course deliberatel

went ve

he didn't answer right away. "You don't have to tell me. I just wa

ess cost him. "I don't know why I had them put you there. I told myself it was the nearest room to mine that was properly furnishe

she was learning, opened fas

e space between them. It was, she realized with some alarm, the first genuinely quiet moment she'd had since the ridge. No blade drawn. No

boredom, for anything of the room's previous occupant left behind. A single fragment, old and brittle, edges burne

cold the moment

that had marked every surviving relic of her own destro

n something about the Blood Moon Wolf's mark long before Mira had ever set foot in this fortress, and felt