The compromised patrol route was changed twice.

Silas’s wolves found it anyway.

That removed coincidence.

Someone inside the alliance was feeding him information.

Kael reacted exactly as Elara expected.

He tightened access.

Split reports.

Changed mes

Mira spread three maps across the archive table.

None matched.

Elara frowned.

“That is useful.”

“It is,” Mira said.

“How?”

“Maps disagree where people wanted something forgotten.”

Kael sat across from them with a bandage around his temple.

The heale

Crimson Fang’s border looked smaller than Elara remembered.

Five years ago, it had felt like the edge of her entire world.

Not long ago, crossing it in the other direction had felt like freedom.

Now she returned at the head of a Royal column.

Not as a