Caelum
I found her camp just before dawn.
My shadow guard fanned out automatically, reading the perimeter, checking the treeline. I let them. Old habits served in unfamiliar territory and this was unfamiliar territory in every sense. The forest was northern, lush and green. It was nothing like the dry pale landscape around Ashenveil.
I was acutely aware that I was standing in a place where Kaida Hawkins had recently been.
The fire pit was cold. Two days at least, maybe three. The ash had been scattered by wind but not entirely erased. There was a ring of stones that had been placed with care — not a haphazard ring, but something considered. Someone who knew what they were doing.
Blackwood, I thought. Or perhaps he had taught Kaida that skill.
I crouched beside the fire pit and looked
