Chapter 30 Forsaken No More

• Weeks had passed since the coven's fall, and the fortress that had once been Blackthorn alone now bore a different name, half-carved into the gate by wolves who couldn't yet agree on what to call themselves but knew, at least, that the old names no longer fit.
• The wolves who'd emerged from that final transformation carried themselves differently now, quieter in some ways, stronger in others, faint silver threading through fur and eyes alike whenever moonlight caught them right. Some days it still startled me, passing a wolf in the corridor and catching that faint shimmer, remembering all over again exactly what we'd all survived to reach this fragile, rebuilding peace.
• Tobin's journal sat on the shelf in our chambers now, returned to a place of honor instead of hidden secrecy, and I found myself reading his careful handwriting some nights just to remember the friend who'd risked everything to leave me a warning I hadn't understood until it was almost too late.