The castle gardens were unlike anything Liora had ever seen in the mortal realm. The air here was heavy with the scent of unfamiliar blossoms—flowers that glowed faintly in the twilight, their petals shifting colors as though they held the night sky within them. Vines wound their way around the ancient stone walls, their leaves shimmering with an iridescent sheen, while the trees towered above her, their branches casting long, shifting shadows that seemed to breathe.
It was beautiful, but unsettling. Even here, in this place of strange natural beauty, the presence of magic was a constant hum beneath the surface, as if the very soil of the fae realm pulsed with power.
Liora crouched beside one of the garden beds, her hands dirty from pulling weeds, her mind far from the task at hand. The
