ETHAN’S POV
The unease began before we even reached the gates.
It settled into me gradually, like a pressure building beneath the skin. Not intense enough to name, but too persistent to ignore.
Frostbane rose ahead of us exactly as it always had—stone walls unbroken, watchtowers manned, the banners along the outer ridge lifting and falling with the night wind—but something in the air felt…displaced.
Like a scent that didn’t belong had soaked into the bones of the land.
I slowed as we passed through the gates, scanning the courtyard, measuring what I saw against what I expected to see.
Warriors were still in motion, but there was no urgency to them, no visible strain of a battle hard-fought.
The ground bore only faint signs of disruption—disturbed gravel, a few shallow marks where claws might have struck, nothing deep enough to suggest a sustained fight.
Beside me, Maya exhaled under her breath. “If this was an attack,” she murmured, “it wasn’t meant to break anything.”
