Nova's POV
Whatever had camped three miles east had not moved in two days.
Ryder had scouts watching it in rotating shifts. It wasn't attacking. It wasn't retreating. It was simply present, three miles out, with a stillness that was more unsettling than movement would have been, the way a held breath was more unsettling than an exhale.
Seraphine had not returned.
The winter wolves had stationed themselves along the palace's eastern wall in a line so consistent it looked architectural like the palace had always had wolves in it and someone had simply forgotten to put them in the original plans.
