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71

Author: EphraStorm
last update Last Updated: 2024-12-20 16:17:17

Chapter 71: Fiona's POV

I was stood at the very edge of the Ashford's pack house —my home, the snow that extended endlessly before me, my boots sinking into it. The air snapped against my skin, and every inhalation was a white plume of vapor that simmered and sat still in the weight of the stillness. Then there was the silence, which was not peaceful: It loomed, laden, as if the entire world was holding its breath. Waiting. Watching. I could just feel — it was an intuition — like something bigger than all of us was enclosing on our lives.

Jason’s shadow fell behind me, a solid immensity as unyielding as the great pines that enclosed this frozen wilderness. His warmth was a whisper, a suggestion, piercing the scalding chill around me only a little bit, but it was there — a tether to keep me from coming undone completely. And yet, as much as I wanted to lean on it, lean on him, it wouldn’t make a difference about what was to come. It wouldn’t alter what needed to be done.

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