Chapter One – The Stranger in the Garden
The rain fell hard and cold, hammering the silver petals of Serenya’s moonlilies until they bent like bowing courtiers. Inside her cottage, the hearth’s low flame painted the walls gold, and the scent of dreamwine steeping in the cauldron filled the air.
She was alone, as she preferred.
The wards she had woven into her garden fence — bright, shimmering threads of her own magic — kept away intruders, both human and otherwise. But on that night, as lightning split the clouds, the wards screamed.
Serenya froze, ladle in hand.
No animal would dare breach her barrier. This was something else.
She set the ladle aside, reached for her staff, and stepped into the rain. The wards’ light pulsed angrily along the fence, spilling onto a dark shape crumpled in the grass.
A man.
Chains, etched with runes, bit deep into his wrists and throat. They glowed faintly, pulsing in rhythm with his heartbeat. His head was bowed, hair plastered to his face, but she felt it — the thrum of magic leaking from him, wild and hot like the moment before a storm breaks.
His head lifted. Eyes met hers. Not human. Not safe.
And when his gaze locked on hers, her wards shivered. So did she.
