INICIAR SESIÓNEven after the villagers had guided us away from the river and the celebration had been called off, the sound remained in my head.leaving behind a feeling I couldn't shake.Eryndor had warned us that if the bells rang three times during the night, we were to remain indoors. But the bell from the forbidden grove had rung only once, and judging by the villagers' reactions, that alone had been enough to frighten them.I kept wondering what would have happened if it had rung again.More importantly, I couldn't understand why my little light had turned red and risen toward the grove in the first place. Everyone else had released theirs into the river, and nothing unusual had happened to them. Mine had been the only one to change, the only one to move against the current, and the only one that seemed to have triggered something hidden beyond the boundary.It made no sense.I had spent most of my life believing I was an ordinary girl who had been dealt an unfair hand. Now, everywhere we went,
I liked seeing this side of him, the one that didn't always seem burdened by the responsibility of being Alpha. Sometimes I wondered what he might have been like if we had met under different circumstances, without the secrets or the strange bond that seemed determined to pull us closer even when I wasn't sure what I wanted from him."You're staring now," he said.I immediately looked away. "I'm looking at the villagers Kael."He raised both hands slightly, pretending to surrender. "I didn't say anything."I shook my head and walked ahead before he could annoy me any further, but I couldn't quite stop the smile on my face.We reached the riverbank, where Liora was helping several children arrange small floating lanterns on a wooden platform. She spotted us and hurried over, carrying two delicate objects that looked like tiny glass flowers."You're just in time," she said. "We're about to begin."She handed one to me and another to Kael. The object was surprisingly light in my palm, wi
I couldn't seem to take my eyes off the elderly woman. Her words kept repeating in my head, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't make sense of them. The bracelet had belonged to my family for as long as I could remember. I had grown up seeing it on my wrist, and although I knew very little about its history, I had never imagined it could mean anything to anyone outside my family."What do you mean, the last woman who came here bearing my family's blood?" I asked. "Who was she?"The woman opened her mouth, but nothing came out at first. She glanced at Eryndor, who had remained near the doorway, and something passed between them that I couldn't understand."I need to know who she was," I insisted. "Was she my mother?"At the mention of my mother, the woman looked at me again. Her expression softened, but there was sadness in her eyes now, along with something that looked uncomfortably close to fear."I cannot tell you that," she replied."Can't or won't?""Anna," Kael said quietly
I followed Kael across the bridge, stepping into a settlement that seemed to belong to a different world.And as the first heavy drops of rain began falling behind us, I couldn't shake the feeling that the mountains had not brought us here by accident.The moment we entered the village, I noticed how different the air felt. The wind that had followed us through the mountains seemed to weaken behind the stone walls, and the smell of wet earth was replaced by the sweet fragrance of the strange plants growing along the paths. Their leaves glowed softly, casting green and blue patterns across the ground. Some curled toward us as we passed, while others opened their petals to reveal tiny lights that floated into the air like fireflies.I slowed down to get a better look at one of them."Don't touch that," Kael warned.I pulled my hand back and frowned at him. "I was only looking.""Then look without touching please.""Do you ever get tired of telling me what to do?""Not when you keep givin
"Perhaps we should approach carefully," Jason suggested. "We don't know who lives there."As if the village had heard him, several figures emerged from between the stone houses. One of them stopped on a small bridge and stared in our direction. Another stepped out of a doorway, followed by two children who appeared to be arguing over something in their hands. Before long, more villagers began gathering along the path leading toward us.They didn't look frightened. If anything, they seemed curious.One woman had pale blue skin that shimmered faintly beneath the lantern light, while the man standing beside her had delicate horns curling backward from his temples. A small creature with translucent wings hovered above a stone wall, watching us with bright, round eyes. Farther down the path, two figures with silver markings across their faces whispered to each other before pointing toward our group.I stared, unable to help myself."What are they?" Desmond murmured."I don't know," I whispe
I gave him an annoyed look, but I moved nearer anyway. The passage was narrow enough that our shoulders almost brushed as we walked, and I could feel him watching the ground ahead of me whenever the path became uneven.The deeper we went, the stranger the air became. It was no longer as cold as it had been outside. Instead, a mild warmth drifted through the passage, carrying the scent of wet earth, wildflowers, and something sweet that reminded me of a garden after rain. and that was the last thing I expected to smell inside a mountain.After a while, the path began to slope downward. The walls widened, and the ceiling rose high above us until the glowing stones became scattered points of light in the darkness.Then I heard water and it was not the rushing sound of the strange river we had crossed, but the gentle sound of a stream moving over smooth stones. It was accompanied by something else, a faint rustling that reminded me of leaves shifting in the wind.I looked at Kael. He had







