Chapter 59 Shadows In The Snow

• The snow had fallen heavier the past two nights, thickening the already suffocating blanket of white that coated the streets and alleyways of Talawan. It deadened every sound, muffling voices and footsteps alike, leaving the world in a deceptive hush. Lucy had begun to notice how even the wind seemed to carry a different quality now — less like a natural thing and more like something watching, waiting.
• Her rooftop greenhouse was layered in frost. She scraped it from the glass in steady strokes, gloved fingers numbing through the thin material as she moved. Every evening was colder than the last. The old thermometer she kept by the window had long since frozen over.
• She gathered what herbs she could under the weak midday light: sprigs of thyme, wilted sage leaves, some hardy valerian roots that clung stubbornly to the soil. They would have to do. Everything else was dwindling.