Petal's POV

The courtyard was alive again,not with laughter, but with coughing.

For a short while, I’d let myself believe it was over. That the fever had passed and the herbs had worked. Wolves had begun to smile again, to train, to walk with their pups in the sun. They had even looked at me without spitting my name like poison.

But peace in this place never lasted long.

It began subtly a cough here, a fever there. A young hunter collapses after training. Then another. And another. ...