CHAPTER 7: THE VOICE IN THE FOREST

The whisper stayed with me long after Cassian led me out of his study.

He knows.

I kept looking at him as we walked, searching for something in his face. He had returned to his usual cold expression, but his hand remained close to mine, as if he expected the mark to burn again.

“What was behind that bookshelf?” I asked.

“Nothing you need to see.”

“That passage opened by itself.”

“Then you should have stayed away from it.”

I stopped walking.

Cassian took two more steps before turning back.

“You keep telling me what I should do,” I said. “But you never tell me why.”

His eyes narrowed slightly. “Because you are alive.”

“That doesn't explain anything.”

“It explains enough.”

“No, it doesn't.”

For a moment, the corridor became too quiet. I could hear the faint crackle of the fire downstairs and the distant movement of guards beyond the walls.

Cassian looked towards the staircase.

“Go back to your room, Elara.”

“Are you afraid of the passage?”

His expression changed.

Only for a second.

But I saw it.

His fingers tightened at his side before he looked away.

“Go.”

I wanted to argue, but the look in his eyes stopped me.

I returned to the bedroom.

The door closed behind me with a soft click.

I stood in the middle of the room, listening to Cassian’s footsteps fade down the corridor. The fire had burned lower, leaving the room cold around the edges.

I should have obeyed him.

I should have stayed in bed.

Instead, I walked towards the window.

Outside, Blackwood was covered in darkness. The moon hung above the rooftops, pale and distant. Guards moved along the outer walls, their boots striking the stone at regular intervals.

No one could enter Cassian’s wing without permission.

But that did not mean I could not leave.

I pressed my fingers against the glass.

A strange itching sensation moved beneath my skin.

Then the mark burned.

I gasped and stepped back.

The room disappeared.

Suddenly, I was standing in a forest.

Tall trees surrounded me, their branches twisting above my head. The air smelled of wet leaves and cold soil. Somewhere nearby, water moved over stones.

I looked down.

Fresh footprints marked the muddy ground.

They led deeper between the trees.

A voice drifted through the darkness.

“Come closer.”

I turned quickly.

No one stood behind me.

The voice came again.

“Come closer.”

The mark on my wrist pulsed.

I followed the footprints.

The forest seemed to stretch with every step. Branches scratched against my arms. Something cold brushed the back of my neck, and the smell of smoke filled the air.

Then I saw a figure standing between two trees.

Its face was hidden.

I tried to move closer, but the ground beneath me cracked.

The figure lifted one hand.

“Not yet.”

The forest exploded into darkness.

I woke with a sharp breath.

My body was covered in sweat. My heart hammered against my ribs, and my fingers dug into the bedsheet.

The room was still there.

The fire had gone out.

For several moments, I could not move.

The vision had felt real.

Too real.

I looked at the window.

Beyond the glass, the sky was beginning to lighten.

Sunrise.

I sat up slowly.

The voice had called me closer.

The footprints had led somewhere.

And if I stayed inside Cassian’s residence, I would never discover where.

I spent the next hour thinking through every possible danger. The guards would notice if I used the main entrance. The private passage was locked. Cassian would stop me if I told him.

That left the window.

It was not a good plan.

It was the only one I had.

I tied a blanket around the edge of the bed and lowered it through the window. My hands shook as I climbed onto the narrow ledge.

The drop below was not far enough to kill me, but it was high enough to break something.

I swallowed hard.

“Please work.”

I lowered myself carefully, then let go.

Pain shot through my ankle when I landed.

I pressed my teeth together to keep from crying out.

For a moment, I stayed crouched beneath the window, listening.

No alarm sounded.

I limped towards the outer garden.

The morning air was cold against my damp skin. Birds called from the trees, but beneath their songs I heard something else.

A low growl.

I turned.

Nothing moved between the trees.

Still, the feeling of being watched followed me as I crossed the garden and slipped through a gap in the outer wall.

Blackwood disappeared behind me.

The forest waited ahead.

I knew I was entering forbidden territory.

The trees were thicker here, their roots rising from the earth like twisted fingers. Mist clung to the ground, and the air smelled of rain, moss and something faintly metallic.

Blood.

I stopped.

Fresh footprints appeared in the mud.

The same footprints from my vision.

My breath caught.

They led away from Blackwood, deeper into the forbidden woods.

I followed them.

The farther I went, the quieter the forest became. Even the birds had stopped singing.

Then I noticed something dark resting on a tree root.

An obsidian stone.

The moment I touched it, heat rushed through my palm.

The mark on my wrist flared.

A voice spoke behind me.

“You finally came.”

I turned.

A stranger stood beneath the trees, watching me.

And somewhere beyond them, a terrifying howl tore through the forest.