{Seraphina's POV, first person.}
The longer I sat in the courtyard, the more uneasy I became. At first, I had dismissed the feeling as mere impatience. Moving several carriage loads of rare materials through heavily patrolled noble territories was not exactly a quick process, and delays were bound to happen. Roads became crowded with merchant caravans, checkpoint guards asked tedious questions, drivers stopped to rest their horses—there were countless reasonable explanations for her absence. Yet, the longer Maribel remained away from the estate, the less reasonable those explanations felt, and a strange knot tightened within my chest as my gaze drifted toward the estate gates once more. The road beyond remained completely empty, offering nothing but the quiet rustle of the wind through the manicured hedges.
