Petal's Pov

The dawn light was pale and trembling when I woke, spilling through the cracks of the Alpha’s tent like a hesitant promise. My body ached from the Rite every muscle, every bone but I was alive. We were alive.

For the first time in what felt like centuries, the air didn’t feel cursed. It smelled like pine, smoke, and something clean and free.

Aslaan wasn’t beside me.

For a brief, foolish heartbeat, panic twisted through me, the old terror whispering that I’d wake and find ...