Chapter 47

• Eliana POV
• It was a burnished gray morning sky, and a little quiet that came before a storm. It is not only the weather, but something denser in the air. Like even the clouds were holding their breath.
• I stood in the war tent, watching a map littered with red-marked stones, one in particular pulsing on the outer borderlands, northeast of the river. The council had briefed us with tense words and tighter frowns: a rogue faction had attacked three outposts in the last week, killing three sentries, injuring more. Their motives weren’t clear. Their savagery was.