Chapter 66 A Night Of Tension

• The halls were quieter than usual that night, the kind of silence that pressed against your skin and made your instincts itch. I pulled my hood up and slipped past the curfew wards, heart beating steady but sharp. My wolf stirred uneasily, ears pricked as though the shadows themselves were alive.
• I wasn't supposed to be out here, but alliances weren't built in daylight under the council's eyes. They grew in whispers, in places where risk outweighed comfort.
• The academy's stone walls loomed on either side, ancient and indifferent. Moonlight barely reached the courtyard, filtered through clouds that smelled like rain. My boots made soft sounds against the gravel, each step calculated to avoid the loose stones that would give me away.