Zarek.
The moment I said it, I knew I had crossed a line. I knew I had crossed a threshold that could never be stepped back over.
A deep, irrevocable line cleaved the air between us.
Her mouth parted, stunned—no, wounded—like I had struck her across the face without ever lifting my hand. She looked at me as if I had taken every fragile piece of what we once were and crushed it beneath my heel in a single breath.
I did not want to believe Valtira capable of something as vile as poisoning another.
Yet the proof lay there—plain, damning—
a small pouch of deadly powder left beside her pillow like a silent accusation.
My thoughts refused to settle. They tangled and writhed until all I could hear was the drumbeat of my own fear:
my reputation, my pack, my enemies waiting like wolves at t
