Evelina's POV
The line held steady in the lantern light, running along the seam where wall met floor, disappearing around a corner I'd never had reason to walk past before tonight.
We followed it in silence, Caspian a step ahead of me, his own lantern low enough that I could still make out the faint glow tracing the stone beside us.
The corridor narrowed the further we went, ceiling dropping low enough that Caspian had to duck once, twice, and I found myself watching my own footing more carefully than I usually bothered to, aware in a way I hadn't been upstairs that we were walking through something old enough to have outlasted every hand that had ever repaired it.
The air changed too, the further we went. Cooler, and carrying a mineral edge I couldn't place, the way water tastes diff
