By the end of the third trimester, it stopped pretending to behave. It didn’t explode. Not really. It warped. Shifted. Fractionally. Micro-adjustments most people wouldn’t notice, but I did. When I first noticed it, palpating the wards. The way they hummed erratically when Nora passed through specific rooms. Like magic, around her refused to align with anything completely predictable. I stood outside the main house of Ember Hills, hand pressed lightly to one of the external ward anchors, with my eyes closed, watching it move. “Ease,” I breathed silently, moving magic with gentle coaxing rather than forcing it. “Not force.” Pressure lessened beneath my palm. There was less resistance. Enough to stabilize… but only for a moment. Footsteps hit the ground behind me with more weight than I expected, but little surprise. “Doing it again, huh?” Caelum asked. I cracked open my eyes and peeked behind me at him. “Line kept jumping.” I shrugged. “You can really feel it react when she’
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