Rowan's POV
I told myself that on the ride out, and I told myself that again when I reached the tree line and left my horse tethered where the grass grew thick enough to hide it from the road. Neither time did it sound convincing, which was becoming a problem of its own. I didn't like lying to myself. I liked it even less when I couldn't seem to stop.
The mark shouldn't exist yet.
That was the actual reason, the one I could say out loud without flinching. Lyra had been clear about the seals the first time she examined Mira, weeks before any of this started. Ancient and layered. Not the kind of thing that surfaced gradually over a matter of weeks. Whatever held those seals in place had been built to last generations, not to start cracking the moment a girl from a diner walked through m
