(Ava’s POV)
The storm came just before dawn—not with thunder, but in the form of silence.
I sat on the floor of the war room, half-buried in intercepted reports and logistical manifests. It was Logan’s handwriting in the margins, Skylar’s seals at the corners, and still… something didn’t add up. I’d been chasing shadows since our return from the border raid, but tonight the shadows finally spoke.
The clue came from the smallest thing. A folded scrap of paper I found in Rhea’s temporary quarters while she was out on a supply run. Hidden beneath the lining of a drawer that no one used. Tucked away like a secret not yet meant to be found.
It was written in a cipher I hadn’t seen since my early days in Ravenwood—before Caleb had stripped everything from me. The symbol stamped at the top se
