Chapter 42: The Wolves after the Door
"She was seen crossing the southern slope at dawn," Beckett said, his breath coming fast as he walked beside Rhett, boots slicing through frost that hadn’t melted in three days. "Alone. No escort. No cloak."
"She’s not thinking straight," Rhett muttered, eyes narrowing as they passed the old watchtower. "Camille wouldn’t just disappear not now."
"She didn’t disappear," Magnolia said, catching up with them near the forest edge. Her voice was tight, controlled, but the worry behind it was raw. "She walked out the front gate in full view of the guards and told them she needed to feel what it meant to breathe without walls."
Rhett slowed. "How long ago?"
"Two hours."
He stopped.
So did Beckett.
"That puts her past the boundary slope," Rhett said, calculating. "If she kept walking "
"She’s in the Hollow," Magnolia finished.
They didn’t speak for a moment.
The Hollow was a low valley carved into the base of the southern ridge, layered in mist even at high noon, forgotten by most except for the wolves who remembered what had happened there during the last rebellion the wolves who never came back out.