#Chapter 240: Marked

Agnes The drive to the highest vista in Silvermoon was quiet. James drove with Elijah riding shotgun, while I sat in the back with Olivia. The silence was thick enough to cut with a knife. I kept stealing glances at Olivia, trying to read her face in the dim glow of passing streetlights. She didn’t look at me. Or any of us, really. And eventually, I got so exhausted that I even nodded off briefly. Finally, the car slowed and turned onto a gravel road that wound its way up a steep hillside. The headlights swept across a few copses of trees and underbrush before coming to rest on a small clearing at the top of the vista. “We’re here,” James announced. The vista was nothing special—just a simple overlook with a rusted guardrail and a couple of weathered picnic tables. But it offered an unobstructed view of the night sky, where the full moon hung low and heavy, and it was the highest point in the pack’s territory. It was as good a spot as any. “This will