The round room sat at the top of the tower.
Aria climbed behind Morwen. Kael came up after her, the witches after Kael. The staircase wound slowly inward and upward through the dark stone, the air getting colder with every turn. No torches. Morwen didn't need them she moved through the blackness the way old animals move through dens they've lived in so long they've stopped thinking about the shape of them.
Then they were at the top.
Same room Kael had been in three weeks back. The maps still spread across the table in the middle. The basin of dark water sitting in the southern corner. Candles burning at the four cardinal points. That single high window where Morwen had been standing the night Kael came in holding a shadowsteel blade.
One thing was different, though. One thing hadn't be
