The meeting with Alpha Kieran happened three days later. I'd wanted to postpone after everything with the crystal, but Darius convinced me otherwise.

"Show weakness now and every territorial leader will smell blood," he said while I was still recovering in our quarters. "We go. We show strength. And we make it clear that we're not prey."

He was right, though I hated it.

The neutral ground was a clearing twenty miles west of the academy. Ancient oak trees formed a natural amphitheater, with a ...