Chapter 71 — The Howl That Breaks Them

The corridor outside the dungeon stairs smells like sweat and silver and the sharp relief of not dying. A runner’s report still rings in my ears: the north wave paused, arguing, some backing away. Nate’s lie is working. Not perfectly. But enough to fracture Rowan’s fist into fingers. Adrian’s hand stays firm at the small of my back as we move, steady pressure, a constant reminder that he’s here, that he’s not letting me get swallowed by the chaos. “North wall,” Logan orders as he passes us at a fast jog, already shifting his attention back to the gate. His voice is clipped, controlled. “If they stall, we push. If they surge, we hold.” Lia is beside him like a shadow with teeth. “Interior is contained. Rowan stays chained.” Nate, still pale, still stubborn, follows with that focused, older look he’s been wearing since tonight began. “They’re hesitating,” he says, voice tight. “Don’t waste it.” We don’t. We run. And then we shift because there’s no faster truth than a wolf on purp

Epilogue - Change in Pace

Dawn doesn’t arrive clean. It seeps into the capital through smoke and damp stone, through the ache in my joints and the ragged breaths of wolves who spent the night refusing to break. The courtyard below the north wall is no longer a battlefield, now it’s a ledger. Bodies covered in cloaks. Silver nets coiled like discarded skins. Rogues bound in lines with their heads down, wrists cuffed, eyes vacant with the shock of surviving failure. The rest of them fled. Not in formation, nothing disciplined, nothing loyal. Just scattered shapes vanishing into treeline and fog, leaving behind the dead and the unlucky and the ones whose courage ran out the moment Rowan’s grip loosened. Logan stands in the open with a commander’s stillness, issuing orders like he’s nailing the world back together plank by plank. “Count the surrendered twice,” he snaps. “Separate the ones carrying silver. No interrogations until healers clear them. And nobody chases into the forest, containment first.” Conta

All Chapters of The Lullaby of Wolfbane: Chapter 71 - Chapter 72

Chapter 71 — The Howl That Breaks Them

Epilogue - Change in Pace