(Isla)
I stood beside Caius and listened to him read.
His voice carried through the hall with the kind of control that made every word land harder. He didn't rush. He didn't need to raise his voice. The charges were enough on their own. Rodan in chains at the front, Hadoc and Dolin beside him, the full pack gathered to hear years of cruelty spoken aloud without excuse or disguise.
I kept my eyes level.
That mattered more than I would've expected. In this hall, in this place, with memory pressing from every side, my eyes weren't on the floor. They moved where I chose. They rested where I chose. The old instinct to make myself smaller was still somewhere in me, but it no longer ruled every part of me.
Caius turned a page.
The sound of paper seemed louder than it should have. So did bre
