The air felt heavier than it had any right to be. Even before Desiree stepped into the clearing, she could feel it pressing against her chest, thick with grief, expectation, and something sharper under it all.

The sky felt like it had been muted. The clouds were hanging low and gray, as if even the heavens had chosen to restrain themselves out of respect for the death of a hero.

The burial grounds was just beyond the eastern ridge of the pack lands, a sacred stretch of land where fallen ...