SUMMER
Sunday afternoon was golden and warm, the kind of afternoon that made Hearthstone Estate look like a painting of itself.
I'd spent the morning sleeping — properly sleeping, deep and dreamless, the kind of rest my body had been owed since Friday night and had finally decided to collect on. I'd woken past noon to find the note still under my pillow, the boots still by the bed, and a tray of tea and toast that someone — probably Sera — had left on the writing desk.
By two o'clock, I'd run out of reasons to stay in my room and went to explore the garden.
I'd seen it from the balcony but hadn't walked through it yet, and up close it was something else — the pool glittering under the afternoon sun, the fountain sending arcs of water into the courtyard, the labyrinth stretching dark an
