Chapter 73

Serena pov

The Frostfang wolves smelled like winter.

Even standing inside Nightshade’s outer ward, I could feel it — cold iron and pine sap, snow carried in their fur, magic that crackled differently from ours. Not weaker. Just… harsher. Sharpened by survival instead of sanctuary.

They stood opposite our warriors in the forest clearing beyond the fortress walls, a line of silver-eyed wolves and hardened fighters facing Nightshade’s darker, earth-bound strength.

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