SERA

Dawn came gray and cold, the kind of morning that felt like the sky itself hadn't decided whether to commit.

I left the pack house before the sun cleared the tree line. Kael was still asleep in his study, slumped over the desk with his reading glasses folded beside his hand and a stack of territorial reports fanned out under his cheek. He'd fallen asleep working again, and I'd pulled a blanket over his shoulders before I left, which felt like a betrayal I didn't have time to examine.

The ...