#Chapter 60 – Unseen Help

Lila Since returning, I’d been walking through the halls like I was made of glass: all shine on the outside, all shatter just beneath. We hadn’t had another trial yet, which only ratcheted up my anxiety around being discovered. I wandered the gardens the first day, then decided I needed some sort of back up plan for when things inevitably fell apart. A map of the Pack territories lay open in front of me on the library table, its corners weighted down with books I didn’t plan to open. I traced the outlines of borders with my fingertip, memorizing political alliances like they might one day save my life. Because they actually might. If my father came demanding more, if Damon decided I was not worth protecting once he knew; if someone—Vanessa—decided my identity was worth outing. I had no safety net. Just a string of lies and a slowly unraveling thread of trust. I leaned back in the wooden chair, gazing over the ledger beside the map. There were notes in a familiar han