Chapter Sixty-Five: The Viper in the Garden
Qin Mo leaned against the hearth, his silver eyes narrowing into lethal slits. "And who did they name? Who in this wretched little village has the authority to promise protection to a group of arsonists?"
"The Chief's daughter," Davy said, the words falling like stones into a still pond.
"Mira. She provided the charcoal from the communal pits, she ensured the guards on the west perimeter were 'distracted' by a fabricated wolf sighting, and she promised Su Mei safe passage to the Southern borders."
The silence that followed was more deafening than any roar. Lin Wan felt a cold sinkhole open in her stomach. She remembered Mira's "gifts" of bitter roots and her silent, watchful presence.
She had assumed it was simply the usual friction between a local and a "foreigner," a natural jealousy. To think that the girl had been willing to burn down a home, and the cubs inside it, was a level of malice that Lin Wan struggled to comprehend.
