Chapter 344 It Was Still In Place

• By morning, you could already taste the tension in the air.
• Ann stood on the palace steps looking over the work sites, cloak thrown over her shoulders against the chill, Coral at her side with a clipboard and two guards hovering close enough to twitch at every sound.
• They came in a ragged line through the main gates...men, women, a handful of children clinging to whatever scraps they carried. Wolves in them, yes, but now they were stripped down to bone and stubborn will. No banners flying, no armor on their bodies, just scars and tired eyes.