DRAVEN'S POV.
Zayn's boots echoed behind me as we turned another corner, the faint scent of rain and blood clinging to the air. My patience was already thinning…the council's bickering, my mother's threats, the whispering maids, it all grated like claws on stone. But now, this?
"She was supposed to stay inside the chambers," I muttered. "I told her not to step out."
Zayn exhaled, rubbing the back of his neck. "She probably just wandered off again. The human's curious, you know that."
I stopped walking, my gaze cutting to him sharply. "Curious doesn't mean disobedient."
Zayn gave a dry laugh. "She's human, Draven. They're built to disobey."
I didn't answer. I couldn't. Something in the air had changed. The scent, faint, and familiar, was there one moment and gone the next, swallowed by something colder. I pushed open the door to my chambers, expecting to find her by the hearth or rearranging things she had no business touching. But the room was empty.
