"What's going on here?" Hezekiah asked.
The rifle came up on instinct, the familiar weight grounding him even as he took a cautious step back. Gravel shifted beneath his boots, loud in the sudden stillness. His gaze cut between the man by the river and Seraphine at his side, searching for something or anything that fit the shape of a plan.
The night felt closer now. Not darker.
Closer.
As if it had leaned in, listening.
Seraphine didn't move to reassure him.
No hand raised. No murmured calm. No easy deflection.
That was what scared him most.
The woman he'd known, who had a sharp-tongued, half-smiling, always a step ahead, was gone. In her place stood someone quieter. Straighter. Every line of her posture suggested intention, not reaction.
Her teasing smile had vanished, replaced b
