The fortress transformed within days into something closer to a besieged citadel than a home, every gate reinforced, every entrance warded twice over with runes drawn from Liora's oldest and most jealously guarded texts. Jasmine barely recognized the courtyard she'd once walked freely — now lined with silent sentries, watchful and grim, standing shifts around the clock. Even the nursery windows had been fitted with fresh warding glass, a precaution that made Jasmine's chest tighten every time she looked at it, a reminder of exactly how real the threat had become.

"You cannot ward against everything," Liora said, watching her own guards complete a third pass over the eastern wall's...