ISABEL POV

As I was bound and placed astride my mare, I couldn't shake the disconcerting feeling that something was amiss. The winding paths we traversed were unfamiliar, diverging from the familiar routes I had traversed earlier that day when I departed from Wolfshade. "Are we still within the bounds of Wolfshade?" I inquired intermittently, hoping for a reassuring answer, but my queries were met only with enigmatic smiles and stony silence.

Accompanied by Luc and Samon, I was guided deeper into the heart of Wolfshade, yet it was a part of the territory I had never before laid eyes upon. My confusion only intensified as we arrived at a...