There was nothing rushed about her stride. There was no urgency in it, and yet the space made room for her all the same. Orcs stepped aside without being asked. Shifters moved just enough to acknowledge that she was there. And I saw Rendel stare at his wife, with a glimpse of regret before hardening.
Keegan didn’t move, but something in him changed.
The Silver Wolf came to a stop a few paces from us, her gaze moving across the group, taking it all in, the orcs, the gathered shifters, Stella, Nova, and then settling, finally, on Rendel.
No one spoke.
Not at first.
And it stretched just long enough that it stopped being a pause and became something else entirely.
Twobble leaned in slightly. “I don’t like this kind of quiet,” he whispered.
“Stay still,” I murmured, though I didn’t take my eyes off them. I wasn’t sure if the Silver Wolf was thinking about jumping on him to end him or chase him away. She didn’t look pleased.
Rendel shifted his stance just enough to square himself toward her, like he had already anticipated this moment and simply hadn’t said so.
A few of the shifters behind Keegan stepped closer without meaning to, drawn in by something instinctual, something olderthan the moment itself. I saw it register in Keegan’s posture, the way his awareness widened without him turning around.
“Mother,” he said.
The word didn’t echo, but it landed.
It always did when those two spoke.
The Silver Wolf’s gaze shifted to him, just for a second, and there was something there, something quieter, softer, but it didn’t linger. It returned to Rendel just as quickly.
“You’re far from where you should be, Rendel,” she said.
Rendel didn’t react. Not outwardly. “That depends on who’s deciding that.”
“That would be me,” she replied.
I watched Keegan shift his weight as he watched his parents interact, knowing he’d been told his father had passed…or at least implied that, and now he was seeing them both together, standing off in the very village they’d abandoned.
Rendel inclined his head, not in submission, not in challenge. Just acknowledgment. “It seems we’ve both had similar ideas.”
The Silver Wolf stared at him, but she didn’t say a word.
Stella let out a small breath beside me, not quite a sigh, not quite a laugh. “Well, good to see we’ve moved past pleasantries.”
“Rapidly,” Twobble added under his breath.
“You warned them,” the Silver Wolf said. “You interfered.”
“I did, although I wouldn’t say I interfered where I didn’t belong. It was time for my return.”
“Says who?” Keegan asked.
The Silver Wolf studied him for a moment, then gave a small nod, like she was acknowledging something she had already suspected.
Nova stepped forward just slightly, easing the tension just enough that it didn’t snap.
“We’re considering alternative routes to find Gideon and the stone,” she said. “Possibly moving through the UnderLoom.”
The Silver Wolf’s attention shifted to her.”
Nova gave her a look. “It comes with complications.”
