The palace did not sleep that night.
Messengers rushed through frozen corridors carrying sealed reports while imperial guards doubled across every entrance leading toward the western halls. The shattered windows inside the audience chamber had already been covered temporarily with heavy velvet curtains, though the cold winter wind still slipped faintly through the cracks, carrying snow and unease into the room alike.
And beneath it all --
The city was changing.
Selene could feel it now.
Not emotionally.
Instinctively.
The awakening sharpening inside her senses stretched beyond palace walls, brushing against invisible threads spread throughout the capital. Wolves. Bloodlines. Power. Fear.
The entire city felt restless beneath the snow.
