Chapter 12 Late Night Conversation S

• The scout was gone by the time Kael made it to the treeline — no scent trail worth following in the fading light, just a few disturbed leaves and the lingering, acrid edge of stranger-wolf that told him everything he needed to know and nothing he could act on.
• "They're gone," he said, jaw tight, returning to where Elara waited at the edge of the ruins.
• "Gone as in 'ran away scared' gone, or gone as in 'melted into the shadows to keep watching us forever' gone? Because those are very different levels of concerning and I'd like to calibrate my anxiety accordingly."