Sera's Pov
I stood by the tallest window in the main building, my eyes locked on the wavering treeline beyond the outer walls. The sky was a sickly shade of grey, like the clouds themselves were holding their breath. Behind me, Lucian stood with his arms crossed, silent but alert. The room we were watching from buzzed with tension—the kind that tightened shoulders and set nerves on edge.
I could see them.
They emerged from the mist like shadows peeled off nightmares. Rows and rows of them. They were a lot more than I remembered. I looked cliser. Some marched in clean, organized lines, probably the mixed bloods, soldiers, the ones that followed Kael. But scattered among them, pushing ahead in a feral sort of shuffle, were what I could guess were actual rogues. Actual criminals banished from their packs. Their eyes gleamed almost yellow with madness, their mouths parted with snarls, and their bodies twitched as if already halfway to shifting.
