Chapter 50 - Lila’s Choice

I woke up before dawn, and the pale hush of pre‑morning clung to my window, breathing back like someone who'd held in too long. My room in Fangreach was silent, it was stone and swathed in shadow, and the only sound was the whispering, tiptoeing heartbeat of my terrible waiting. I let the covers slide off me as I sat up with a frown, my cloak falling across my shoulders and my feet brushing against the cold flagstones as I made my way to the tiny slit in the wall. Below, through the fog, torches guttered in their stone sconces along the courtyard walls, while pines stood like sentinels across Veilwood. We had made a pact—wolf, bear, and pariah—but I was divided now, between the pack that had defined me and the solidarity I'd bled for to establish.