KAEL – POV
Ayla didn't sleep the night after her vision.
She paced the grove like a wolf hunting something it couldn't see. Her hands glowed faintly, runes surfacing on her skin unbidden. The First Luna's magic had always answered pain—but now, it pulsed with warning.
"She had your face," I said.
"She wasn't me," Ayla whispered.
Rylan burned sage into the ward-lines around the grove. Daya reinforced the old shields. Every wolf in the Council Hall could sense the shift.
Something was coming and it wore a crown.
We summoned the Council at dawn.
Ayla stood before them, her back straight, eyes storm-pinned.
"I saw her in the dreamscape," she said. "She wasn't shadow. She wasn't Seer. She was bonded—twice over. To something older than blood."
Rylan paled. "Dual-bonding is forbidden magic. Impossible magic."
Daya leaned forward. "Unless she was created."
I looked at Ayla.
"She said she had your face," I repeated.
Ayla nodded.
