(Ava’s POV)
The halls of the Shadow Claw compound felt colder than usual, though I couldn’t tell if it was the stone beneath my feet or the silence that had taken root in the spaces between us all.
Everyone had their role. Emily was managing internal affairs. Logan oversaw the outer patrols. Dominic… he hadn’t spoken to me since the last strategy meeting, where he’d sat like a carved statue, only his eyes betraying the war underneath.
And me?
I trained until my muscles trembled. I patrolled until night bled into dawn. I stayed busy, not because the faction needed me—though they did—but because stillness meant thinking. And thinking meant feeling. And feeling was dangerous.
Especially when everything I cared about was splintering beneath the surface.
I moved through the courtyard now,
