The Dawnoro's estate, the Winter's Keep, sat like a beast curled for sleep, its dark stone walls absorbing what little light the northern sky offered.
Inside, the keep hummed with quiet life. Fires crackled in every hearth… servants moved through corridors, their breath visible in the chill of unheated passages… the smell of pine and smoke and something cooking.
A rich, meaty stew, wafted from the kitchens below.
Upstairs, in a small chamber near the family quarters, candles flickered against the darkness. A girl sat by her window, watching the snow fall.
Sienna's face was blank.
Not quite the blankness of peace, more so certainty. She was absolutely certain that the world was about to shift in her favor.
She was sure, in the next semester, the last semester of the senior year for Arkai, Cecilia Araceli would be gone. Whatever her father had planned, whatever pressure he was applying, it would work. It always worked.
