A healthy walk, Nuala used to call it with a smile. It was that. For the first time since she’d found Nuala, Breanna felt a tightness in her chest and shoulders ease. Even in daylight, the grave glowed in its circle of moonlight. She wasn’t sure if that light simply offered some comfort to the living or was protection for the dead, but she was grateful for this gift from the Lady of the Moon.

As they reached the grave, Keely stopped and cocked her head. “Do you hear something?”

No, she didn’t, but her nose picked up an unpleasant smell in the air that made her uneasy. A…decaying smell. Not wanting to think about why she might be smelling something like that, she summoned a light wind and guided it over the crescent of rose bushes Nuala had planted years ago. Even though the bushes were trimmed every year, they were chest-high now, and, despite being so late in the season, there were still enough roses blooming to scent the air.

“I do hear something,” Keely said. “There’s someone behind the rose bushes, crying. It sounds like a child.” She moved toward the bushes, altering her course to come around the nearest end.

Breanna wasn’t listening. The wind had stirred the long grass on the bank of the brook, revealing a patch of red cloth for a moment. Puzzled, she walked toward the spot where she’d glimpsed the cloth.

“Hello?” Keely said, moving closer to the bushes. “Are you lost?”

A small sound. A click of pebble on stone. Breanna looked toward the bridge and saw the three riders, still distant, heading toward her. Liam, she thought affectionately. Coming for his daily brotherly inspection.

“Don’t cry. You don’t have to be afraid. Are you lost?”

Another click of pebble on stone. Another small sound, muted but still filled with agony. Dismissing Liam and his companions, she turned her attention back to the brook and moved closer.

Keely rounded the end of the crescent, stopped when she was close to the middle of it, and asked, “Who are you?”

Ashk reined in so hard and fast her horse almost tumbled over in its effort to obey. She patted its neck as both comfort and praise, but her attention was on the light wind blowing in her face.

Selena and Liam pulled up and looked back at her.

“Ashk?” Selena said.

“Can’t you smell it?” A tremor went through Ashk’s body. “That smell. That scent.”

Selena turned her face into the wind. “I don’t—” She gasped, then twisted in the saddle to look at the Hunter. “It’s coming from the direction of Nuala’s grave. And there’s someone near there.”

“Breanna,” Liam whispered. He whipped his horse into a frenzied gallop, leaving Selena and Ashk racing to keep up with him.