Soon they were out of the temple, stepping into open air and natural light after the underground passage and its cramped, hidden room. Leon told Loriel about the garden — that Seraphine and the others were waiting there — and she led him without hesitation, her earlier embarrassment tucked away somewhere behind the practical business of moving.
She spotted them from a distance.
Two women with red hair, standing in the garden's shade. The illusion Leon had cast sat cleanly over their appearances, their skin reading as normal human coloring to anyone without reason to look closer. Loriel had reason — not because she could see through the illusion, but because she recognized them.
