Ardyn POV

The courtyard still stank of burnt stone and blood when dawn bled over Iron Howl.

Half the wolves had gone. I could feel their absence like teeth torn from a jaw howls trailing into the night, carrying oaths I would not forgive.

“To Hollowbone,” one had shouted before vanishing. “To the Huntress, before fire devours us all!”

Their words echoed still.

The rest knelt, eyes lowered, throats bared. Not loyalty. Fear. They didn’t kneel for Kael. They knelt to the fire that ...