The third territory was called Drennick, and Tavri felt the difference the moment they crossed its border — not Hollowmere's grief, not Ashwell's settled isolation. Something sharper. Something that made the attunement she'd spent years building sit up and pay attention in a way it hadn't for the previous two.
"This is different," she said to Iris, in the vehicle, before they'd even reached the territory's center. "I don't know what yet. But it's not the same shape as the others."
Iris checked her notes — sparse, as they'd been for every territory in this corridor, but with one detail that hadn't appeared in Hollowmere or Ashwell's records: a name, mentioned twice in passing references Zane had managed to extract from the older archive material, never explained, never followed up on.
"M
