Tessa POV
The air thickened with every step forward.
It clung to my skin like damp silk, cool and heavy. The trees grew stranger here - trunks twisting in impossible spirals, bark blackened and veined with glowing blue cracks that pulsed like veins. No birds. No insects. Just silence, so complete it made the crunch of hooves on frostbitten leaves sound obscene.
We were no longer on a road. We were inside something.
The forest had teeth. I could feel it watching us.
Rylan shifted in his saddle, mouth tight. “If anything moves that isn’t us, I’m stabbing first and asking questions in the afterlife.”
“Fine,” I said. “Just don’t stab the Seer.”
“That depends. Does she do the creepy prophecy voice thing?”
Galen didn’t answer. His sword was already drawn, resting across his lap like an extension of his spine. The five warriors behind us rode in silence, but I could sense their tension building with each stride. One whispered a prayer under his breath - to the Moon Goddess, or to anything th
