The Ravenclaw wolves closed ranks, cutting off our escape route. Gideon's smile widened.

"Well?" He tilted his head. "What's it going to be?"

Through the bond, I felt Darius calculating. We were surrounded, outnumbered, and our people were exhausted. The math was simple and brutal.

But simple math had never accounted for everything.

I studied the Ravenclaw formation. Fresh troops, yes. Synchronized pairs, definitely. But there was something off about their positioning. Too rigid. Too ...