*****

The wind picked up, lashing harder against the stone walls of the manor, howling in lamentation as Kael pushed his men to scour every inch of the estate’s perimeter. The ostensibly tranquil snow day had deteriorated into a full-blown blizzard, leaving them with a narrow window to locate any traces before the weather erased them entirely. A pack of hounds had been released to track Lilia’s scent, but the few footprints found in the slush led only to the forest’s periphery before ...