Aurelia POV
The morning had started peacefully.
I moved through the forest, my basket half-filled with the herbs Rowan requested, my pace slower than it had been months ago, my advancing pregnancy now impossible to ignore with each step across the uneven terrain. Rowan insisted on accompanying me for most of our recent expeditions,but he remained behind that morning to tend to a small fire he has been maintaining for a remedy requiring constant attention.
"Stay close to the cabin," he warned before I left. "No further than the eastern clearing."
I agreed readily, intending to honor his reasonable caution given everything we discussed regarding those mysterious tracks weeks ago.
The eastern clearing offered exactly the herbs I needed, sunlight filtering pleasantly through the canopy ov
