Theron looked at her, then at the mansion standing beneath that strange and unsettling light.
"It does not seem right," he said quietly.
Something in the way Aveline had spoken, so quickly and so naturally, tightened in his chest. He could hear the longing beneath her words, a need so immediate that it seemed to pull at him as much as it did at her.
She wanted to be there. She needed to be there.
And though the light around the mansion was still wrong, still tainted by something he did not trust, he could not bring himself to refuse her.
It would be better if he went with her. Better if he stayed close. Better if whatever waited there had to face both of them at once.
So, he let her lead him forward, even as the air around the mansion shimmered with that unfamiliar light, as though something dangerous had settled over the place and was waiting patiently at the edge of memory.
-----
The King almost withdrew his hand.
"The Willowgrave mansion?" he murmured in disbelief.
