The first sign was the silence.
Kael noticed it before anything else—before the cold prickle along his spine, before the faint distortion in the air, before the uneasy shift in Eron’s breathing. The night around the estate had gone unnaturally quiet, as if the world itself were holding its breath.
No insects, no wind. Even the distant bells of the city had fallen mute.
Kael stopped walking.
Eron, half a step behind him, nearly bumped into his back. “Kael?”
“Stay close,” Kael said softly.
His senses stretched outward, brushing against the familiar lattice of wards surrounding the estate. They were intact. Untouched. And yet… something had slipped between them.
That was the problem. Whatever was here hadn’t broken in. It had been invited.
They were crossing the old lower courtyard, t
