The air inside the cabin felt different.
I had been at war for too long to ignore something like this. It was a subtle sensation, an almost imperceptible shift in the energy around me. Something in the atmosphere was… charged.
Freidis was the first to react.
“Elise.”
It wasn’t a growl, nor a warning. It was a call, a pull on my consciousness.
I set down the book I was holding and closed my eyes, focusing on what she was feeling.
“You sense it too?”
Her voice vibrated in my mind, low and alert.
Yes, I sensed it. It wasn’t an imminent danger, not a tangible threat. It was something else. Something deeper.
Something familiar.
I stood up, feeling the hairs on my arms rise. The warmth of the fireplace did nothing to dispel the chill crawling down my spine.
“It’s him.”
The certainty
