Chapter 164

* Elora*

The valley held its breath.

After Slo’s vision—after her whispered warning of blood and betrayal and blades cloaked in memory—no one said what we were all thinking. That the war was already breathing down our necks. That even the trees seemed to lean back now, no longer sheltering us but bearing silent witness.

I wandered the perimeter of the camp alone, boots crunching against gravel as