“You look like you’re waiting for something terrible to happen.”The voice was warm.Too warm for this place.Caelan blinked, pulling himself out of the careful distance he’d built around his thoughts. He turned slightly, expecting calculation, expectation, the usual sharp edge that came with every interaction in this court.Instead—He found a woman smiling at him like she meant it.Not polite.Not strategic.Just… real.It threw him off balance more than any threat could have.“I usually am,” he said before he could stop himself.Her smile widened, not offended, not surprised.“If something terrible does happen,” she said lightly, “you’ll be perfectly prepared for it. In the meantime, you might as well sit down.”Caelan hesitated.Just for a second.Because this—This didn’t feel like a test.Didn’t feel like Seraphina’s careful probing or the court’s constant, quiet evaluation.It felt… simple.And that made it suspicious in a completely different way.Still—He sat.The garden was
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