Chapter 58. Waiting for the Moon

The days passed in a hush, time moving like thick sap through a wounded tree. Not slow—heavy. Each moment dragged behind it the weight of dread and fragile hope. The kind of hope that trembled, that didn’t quite dare to settle inside anyone’s chest.

Ismeria did not speak much. Her body healed faster than her spirit, as all wolves’ bodies do. The wolfsbane had long since burned out of her veins, leaving her steady on her paws, her glow returning in flickers, like stars breaking through cloud cover. But her movements were sluggish, her eyes hollow with absence. Something deeper remained wounded. Something Mira had taken with her when she disappeared inside.

Kaelen stayed close—closer than anyone else.

He rarely left the edge of the clearing where Ismeria chose to rest, pacing like a sentry when she slept, stilling only when she leaned into him. He fed her by hand when she wouldn’t eat, carried water in cupped palms when she refused to rise. When she growled, he didn’