The Crown dragged me down into the dark.

Every step through Iron Howl’s underkeep echoed with whispers not just from the Crown, but from wolves who had once been Kael’s. Now they rotted behind iron bars, Hollowbone loyalists, captured during the last raid.

They snarled as I passed, hands reaching through the bars, eyes hollow with hunger for Veyra’s name.

Feed them to me, the Blood Crown hissed. One wolf, one throat, and the Alpha’s scar will close.

I paused before the first cell. A ...