Chapter 145

Maren

The night is too quiet.

Not peaceful—expectant.

Like the world is holding its breath and waiting to see what we’ll do next.

We stopped at a small, half-forgotten ranger station on the edge of dragon domain, the kind of place no one visits anymore. Wood, stone, and silence. The air smells like pine and cold rock and something faintly metallic underneath—like old fire sleeping in the bones of