Arielle's POV
The cold thing under the mark got louder the week after Kieran left.
It had been a background note before, something I was aware of the way you are aware of a sound in another room. After the negotiation, after Kieran's departure, it moved to the foreground. Steady and cold and building.
I told Lucien on the third day.
He set aside what he was doing immediately, which told me he had been waiting for this.
"What does it feel like?" he asked.
"Like the temperature drops whenever I pay attention to it. And it's been dropping for three days." I touched the mark. "The Shadow Queen is doing something. Something that's close enough to the Haunted Forest's boundary to register."
"Seraphina," he said.
"Yes. The timing. She'll have heard about the negotiation. She'll have heard
