THE ROUTE
Selene's POV
Ronan spread the maps across the tactical table like he was laying out a problem he'd already half-solved and wanted witnesses for the second half.
Three maps. Overlapping.
The outermost showed the full territorial spread between Nightshade and Crescent land, the borders marked in thick ink, rivers and roads cutting through the landscape like old scars.
The second zoomed into the border crossing points.
The third was different.
Hand-drawn.
Detailed enough that every building, access road, drainage route, and blind corner had been marked with precise notation.
More detailed than anything Felix had ever managed to pull from the archives.
I found myself staring at it longer than I intended.
"You've been there," I said.
Ronan didn't look up immediately.
"Once. Seven years ago. Before your father sealed the border crossings."
There was something in his voice that suggested an entire story had just been condensed into one sentence.
