The gentle gurgle of the pool's fountain did little to ease the knot of tension coiling in my chest, its rhythmic trickle mocking the storm brewing among us.

A rising wind whispered through the trees, carrying the faint, earthy scent of impending rain, but no one spoke.

I'd laid out my fears since morning—the anonymous threat, the inexplicable dread gnawing at me—but my body felt numb, adrift in a sea of unease, as if my very senses had abandoned me.

Uncle Brandy had tried to explain earlier, piecing together fragments of lore and logic, but my mind was a whirlwind of doubts, too fractured to grasp it all. The wicker...