RILEY'S POV
The camp looked exactly the way I remembered it. Tents sagging under fresh snow. Fires spitting sparks into the dark. Wolves moving quiet and watchful along the perimeter. The air smelled of pine smoke and wet fur and the faint metallic bite of silver weapons being sharpened. Home. Or what used to feel like home.
I limped up the central path on purpose. Slow. Uneven. Letting my left leg drag just enough to sell the story. My hood stayed up. My shoulders stayed hunched. Every few steps I let out a small, shaky breath that fogged in the cold. I was a Broken girl coming home. A desperate girl with nowhere else to go. That was the performance.
Kael was waiting.
