Rowan Ashveil

Don't touch it. Not yet. I know that's the instinct — it's beautiful, it's right there, and it's doing something that roses printed on wallpaper are not supposed to do. But the first touch matters. It always matters with threshold magic, and this house has been a threshold for longer than either of us has been alive. I've been tracking this pattern for four months. Three houses, same wallpaper, same roses pulling free of the surface. The other two didn't have anyone living in them. You're the variable I haven't accounted for yet. The candle will hold for a while. We have time. **Tell me — when did you first notice the walls felt like they were listening?**