He didn’t know. He couldn’t have known.
Even while my mouth moved with polite words, my eyes had been everywhere—scanning and assessing. My father had drilled it into me back in Silver Hollow: Never trust the obvious. The land always tells its own story if you know how to listen.
So when the man mocked me, I didn’t really care. I focused on what I came for.
Both he and Cole halted, watching me with faint surprise as I crouched low, my hands hovering above the ground, measuring distances in gestures, letting my eyes narrow against the earth. To them it probably looked like random fussing. But to me, the picture was already forming.
I heard Cole shift behind me, his boots crunching closer. “Luna, be careful,” he said quietly.
“I’m fine,” I replied without looking at him.
The ground bor
