Chapter <b>119 </b>


    ATASHA’S POV


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    “The beast inside him has been awakened?” I frowned. “Elder Agape, what are you talking about?”


    “As you may have already noticed… Lord Cassian is not an ordinary werewolf. He intervened when the stone tried to take you. He seeded, but I do not know what that cost him,” Agape had said before he left to deal with the new problem outside the gates.


    Matron Yara.


    Now the cabin was crowded and tense. I forced myself to focus, stop thinking about Cassian, but I couldn’t. I shouldn’t think about him right now. Not when Matron Yara just arrived at the northern outpost.


    I looked at Halden as he stood near the table. I knew Grace was outside these doors <b>so </b>I wasn’t scared that the Matron would do something unimaginable.


    Then, I finally looked at Matron Yara, behind her was her assistant called Maningo. He lingered a step behind Matron Yara, who sat with perfect posture, hands folded, eyes calm in a way that set my teeth on edge.


    Why was she here?


    Halden broke the silence first. “Why do you look surprised, Matron?”


    “Surprised?” Yara’s smile didn’t reach her eyes. “Relieved, is the word that I would use councilor. We heard that the northern outpost was nearly overrun. I’m d to see you still standing. I am relieved to see you still alive.”


    I met her gaze. “What do you mean ‘we heard‘? Who told you anything about our situation? We have Lord Cassian guarding this outpost. The beasts would find it hard to breach our defences.”


    Yara’s eyes shifted to me as if weighing whether to scold a child. She didn’t. She arranged her expression into something soft, something that almost made me sick to my stomach.”Child, I’m merely concerned. The Lord just married. A new bride so far from home, of course I came. I brought physicians to support your healers.”


    “We don’t need physicians,” Halden said tly. “Physician Mendez is enough.”


    Yara blinked as if offended on behalf of her entourage. “How could that be?”


    “How could what be?” I asked. “That our healers are capable of treating the wounded? Or that you only arrived with extra hands after the third night had already passed? Matron Yara, you were born and raised in the North. You knew better than anyone that surviving the third night is nothing unusual. So tell me, why did you feel the need to leave the safety of the gates, where you’re most needed, toe here now?”


    A small crack showed in her smile. “It is disappointing to be greeted with suspicion when Ie to serve<b>.</b><b>” </b>


    I ignored that fake facade on her beautiful face. All I wanted was to leave this cabin as soon <b>as </b><b>I </b>could. I wasn’t in the mood to fake pleasantries. “You said you ‘heard‘ we were almost overrun,” I said. “From whom? No runner was sent. And if you truly believe the outpost was at risk, whye with just physicians and not more soldiers? The Lord is powerful. A tide like this would not make the North fall.”


    <b>12:53 </b><b>Sat</b><b>, </b><b>Sep </b><b>27 </b>


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    Almost immediately, her smile vanished. Yara’s palm mmed the table. “How dare you be ungrateful?” Her voice carried through the small room. “I leave the safety of the keep to bring aid, and this is how I’m received?”


    I bit back my words, choosing silence instead. Halden stayed quiet as well. From everything we had learned, it was clear the Matron had pushed Reina intoing here and fed poison into Halden’s ear too. Her true purpose was still hidden from me, but one thing was certain, whatever she was after, it wasn’t for the good of


    the North.


    Yara looked between us, waiting for someone to retreat. When no one did, she drew a slow breath and straightened. “If our presence is not wanted, we will leave<b>.” </b>


    “Matron,” Maningo stepped in smoothly. “We can depart at first light. The sun will <b>set </b>in a few hours. The roads will close, and the passes are unsafe at night.”


    Yara shot him a look, then lifted her chin. “Fine. We leave at dawn.” She turned toward the door, paused long enough to let the silence stretch, then swept out. Maningo dipped his head to the room and followed.


    The door shut behind them.


    Seeing this, Halden immediately looked at me. “What do you want us to do?”


    “We keep going,” I said. “Nothing changes. You hold the walls. I’ll be in the infirmary.”


    He nodded as I stood and walked out of the cabin. “Grace.”


    She stepped to my side. “My Lady?”


    “Do you know where Cassian is?”


    “He left early this morning,” she said. “No one’s seen him since. Scouts didn’t track him, they assumed it was Lord’s business.”


    I pressed my lips together and nodded. “All right.” I was already expecting this answer, yet a part of me still hoped that they somehow knew where he was.


    I stepped out into the cold. A few soldiers passing by paused to bow their heads, murmuring greetings. I forced myself to nod back, even managed a faint smile. Pulling my cloak tighter, I raised the hood over my head, hoping it would hide me from more eyes.


    The yard buzzed with tired movement, armor being patched, arrows bundled, cauldrons boiling over open fires. I crossed to the wall stairs and climbed. The stone steps were uneven and iced at the edges, my breath fogging as I went.


    I asked Grace not to follow me as I took the narrow walkway to the highest tower. From there, the North stretched out in every direction.


    Endless snowfieldsy beyond the outer trenches, broken by dark stands of dead pines and the jagged lines of half–buried rock. The drifts were piled high where the wind had been strongest. Old battle scars marked the ground below, ckened scorch lines where oil had burned, churned earth where beasts had wed, frozen blood staining the snow near the base of the wall.


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    Closer in, the outpost looked small against the expanse, towers like blunt teeth, parapets patched with fresh timber, ropes of frost hanging from the crions. Thin streams of smoke rose from chimneys inside the yard. Beyond that, nothing moved, no caravans, no travelers, only wind cutting across the snow and the asional groan of shifting ice.


    It was a harsh view. I wrapped my cloak tighter around me and stared out over the white, willing my heartbeat to steady and my thoughts to fall in order. Just where in the goddess’s name is Cassian and why did he leave? Does it have something to do with what Agape just told me?


    Suddenly, a heavy thudnded behind me. I spun, my cloak whipping in the wind. Then my eyes widened.


    Cassian stood a few paces away, snow clinging to his boots, his coat dusted white as if he’d walked straight out of the storm. His face was the same unreadable mask as always, but the sight of him hit me harder than the cold wind.


    “Cassian,” I blurted before I could stop myself. The name came out rough, carried by a rush of relief I didn’t expect. My body moved before my thoughts caught up, I crossed the distance and threw my arms around him.


    His chest was solid against me, his coat stiff with frost, but he didn’t push me away. For a moment I stayed there, gripping the fabric at his back, breathing in the sharp smell of snow and steel.


    “I’m d you’re all right,” I said, my voice muffled against him. Then I stilled. Why in the goddess’s name did I hug him?


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