LOGINDarian Voss did not dismount.He sat his horse like he had been born there, one hand resting on the hilt of his blade, the other loose on the reins. Four riders fanned out behind him, silent and watchful. None of them looked surprised to find Logan on their border.That meant they had been warned.Or they had been expecting trouble long before tonight.Lydia stood between Logan and Elira on the ridge, her breath still uneven from the climb, the forest cold at her back and the open valley before her. The watchfires below burned low and steady, too calm for a place on the edge of fear.Darian’s gaze moved over them once more. Logan first. Then Elira. Then Lydia, slower than before.His expression did not soften.“You crossed my boundary without permission,” he said.Logan’s voice was flat. “You can have the apology or the truth. Not both.”One of the men behind Darian shifted, clearly offended.Darian only raised an eyebrow. “Truth would be new.”Lydia felt the old tension flare through
Darian Voss did not dismount.He sat his horse like he had been born there, one hand resting on the hilt of his blade, the other loose on the reins. Four riders fanned out behind him, silent and watchful. None of them looked surprised to find Logan on their border.That meant they had been warned.Or they had been expecting trouble long before tonight.Lydia stood between Logan and Elira on the ridge, her breath still uneven from the climb, the forest cold at her back and the open valley before her. The watchfires below burned low and steady, too calm for a place on the edge of fear.Darian’s gaze moved over them once more. Logan first. Then Elira. Then Lydia, slower than before.His expression did not soften.“You crossed my boundary without permission,” he said.Logan’s voice was flat. “You can have the apology or the truth. Not both.”One of the men behind Darian shifted, clearly offended.Darian only raised an eyebrow. “Truth would be new.”Lydia felt the old tension flare through
Lydia could not feel her hands.They were still locked around Logan’s arm, but sensation had thinned into heat and pressure and a violent hum running through her bones. The clearing swayed around her. Trees, broken stone, black earth—everything seemed too sharp, too bright, too close.Beside her, Logan had gone still.Not frozen.Controlled.The chaos inside him, the savage force that had been tearing itself apart a breath earlier, had narrowed into something hard and lethal. She could feel it through the bond with terrifying clarity now.Not just his rage.His focus.Across the clearing, the darkness wearing Kaelith’s shape watched them both in silence.Then it laughed.The sound rolled through the trees like rot spreading under bark.“You were never meant to be found this early,” Kaelith said.Lydia tried to step back.Her knees nearly gave out.Logan caught her around the waist before she hit the ground. The contact sent another shock through the bond, stronger than before. She fel
No one moved.The hunters remained on one knee with their heads bowed, as if the forest itself had ordered their bodies into submission. Their thin shoulders trembled. Their pale eyes fixed on the ground.Lydia’s breath caught in her throat.Predators did not kneel.Not unless something worse had arrived.The trees ahead began to sway though no wind touched them. Branches scraped together with a dry, whispering sound. The darkness between the trunks thickened until it looked less like shadow and more like something gathering shape.Elira stepped back.It was the first sign of fear Lydia had seen in her.“Run,” Elira said quietly.Logan did not move.The bond hit Lydia with a violent surge of recognition. Not memory exactly. Something older than memory. A dread so deep it felt inherited.The darkness advanced.It did not walk. It flowed.When it reached the clearing, it rose taller than any man, draped in shifting black that never settled into cloth or skin. Two eyes opened inside it—b
The forest did not feel like part of the same world as the palace.There were no polished halls here. No guards pretending courage. No banners covering rot with silk. Only black trees, wet earth, and the cold bite of night pressing in from every side.Lydia stumbled over a root and caught herself on a low branch.Logan’s hand closed around her arm before she could fall.“Watch your footing.”“I would,” she said, breathless, “if you slowed down.”He released her at once, but not before the bond carried a pulse of irritation mixed with concern. It had become impossible to separate one from the other where he was concerned.Behind them, the palace lights were distant now—small and pale beyond the trees.Ahead, the cloaked woman moved without hesitation.She never looked back. She simply expected them to follow.Lydia hated that.“Who is she?” Lydia asked quietly.Logan’s jaw tightened. “I don’t know.”The answer came too fast.She looked at him sharply. “That was a lie.”He said nothing.
The voice came again.Soft. Faint. Impossible.“Logan.”It rose from the darkness beneath the stairwell like breath from a grave.Neither of them moved.The guards who had moments ago pretended authority were already retreating down the corridor. One made the sign warding off evil as he backed away. The other did not bother hiding his fear.Lydia kept her eyes on the black stairwell. “Tell me that was a trick.”Logan said nothing.Through the bond she felt something she had never felt from him before.Shock.Not surprise. Not confusion.Shock so sharp it hollowed him out for one dangerous second.Then it was gone beneath iron control.He took the first step downward.Lydia followed.“I told you to stay behind me,” he said.“And I told you that depends on the quality of your orders.”Normally that would have earned her a cutting reply. Tonight, he only kept walking.The narrow stairs spiraled into colder air. Dust coated the stone. No servant had been here in years. The lamps fixed to







