Jade Goldlight's Arc

Chapter 16 of 20

At dawn Jade walked back to the dead tree alone. The bound book stayed on her shelf, but a few torn pages were still tucked in her pocket. She pinned them to the cracked trunk with a sliver of stone, edges curling in the wind. No name. No flag. Just a marker only she would read. She stood back and watched the pages flutter against the black bark. The village would never climb out here. They would keep cheering the wolf at her door, and that was fine — for now. Jade pressed her palm to the trunk and felt her stone magic answer, quick and clean, hers alone. She turned for home. The secret would hold. The next fight, she decided, she would let them see.