POV: Aiden

I survived treason, exile, and guilt, but survival has never felt like forgiveness.

The healers said I was lucky.

They said the stones should have crushed my ribs completely, that Corvin’s magic should have stopped my heart outright, that most wolves would have bled out before help arrived. They spoke in careful tones, as if luck was something fragile they might shatter if they named it too loudly.

I did not feel lucky, I woke each day with the same image burned behind my ...