SERAPHINA’S POV
Three days.
That was all we allowed ourselves.
Time had the peculiar habit of moving too quickly when you needed it to slow down.
It slipped away in a blur of intense training, strategic discussions, and long stretches of silence, during which we never voiced what lingered beneath the surface.
Worry.
Because the longer we stalled, the longer my mother stayed imprisoned and alone and entirely at the mercy of the woman who had once been her closest friend.
On the morning of the third day, I stood in the Frostbane strategy room, phone in hand, every gaze fixed on me as I prepared to make the call.
Kieran stood beside the window with his arms crossed, the early sunlight outlining the hard line of his shoulders.
Ethan leaned against the far wall, his expression carefully neutral, though the tightness in his jaw betrayed his emotions.
Corin sat calmly at the table, fingers loosely interlaced as though this were any other day, any other conversation.
