Senna’s POV
The estate was too quiet. Not the kind of quiet that comes from peace, but the kind that is built. Everything was managed, controlled, and curated. Nothing ever felt out of place. Even the air seemed filtered.
I hated it.
By the third day, I knew the layout of my wing well enough to move through it without thinking. By the fourth, I knew where the guards stood even when I couldn’t see them. By the fifth, I stopped pretending I wasn’t being watched and started looking for the places where I wasn’t.
That was how I found the woods.
They weren’t hidden, exactly. They were just…less maintained than the rest of the grounds. I stumbled on them by accident, down a path that lead right into them. The path narrowed, the stone giving way to fresh earth. Then to uneven ground where ro
