Selene and Rowan crept through the thick forest for what felt like miles, the wind screeching through the treetops. Selene’s heart raced — not only from exertion, but from the tempest raging in her chest. Every fiber of her being shouted that going back was a mistake, but she wasn’t going to walk away. Not yet.
Not until she had answers.
Rowan walked beside her in his wolf form, his enormous white coat dazzling in the moonlight. Agnes walked a few paces behind, her sharp eyes scanning the shadows as if expecting ambush at every turn.
They all knew this was dangerous.
Selene’s body remained alien to her, the force brewing under her skin like a wild tempest. She heard whispers in the wind, felt the pulse of life in the earth beneath her feet. It was a lot, it was suffocating at times, but she was not going to let it break her.
Not until she had control.
Not until she made Caden pay.
"You’re thinking too loudly." His golden eyes turned t
The deeper they walked into the mountain’s throat, the more the world seemed to shift. The stone wasn’t just stone anymore. It pulsed, like a muscle. Like a memory. Veins of silver and black pulsed along the cavern walls, humming beneath their boots. This wasn’t a place built—it was a thing kept alive.And now, something in it was stirring.Rowan walked at Selene’s side, his blade drawn, his gaze flicking over every shadow. Agnes murmured protective wards under her breath, and Vera moved like a ghost just ahead of them, scout and sentinel both. But it was Selene who carried the tension in her chest like a coiled storm.“I don’t think this place is just where I was made,” she murmured.Rowan’s eyes narrowed. “You think it’s alive?”“I think... it’s listening.”Just as she said it, the corridor opened into a vast stone chamber. The air was thick, cold, and oddly still—like the pause between two heartbeats. At the center of the chamber stood a figure.They weren’t cloaked in darkness, no
They traveled in silence the next day, not because there was nothing to say, but because the weight of what might come made every word feel like it would echo too loudly.The Diremar Range loomed like jagged fangs on the edge of the world, veiled in perpetual stormclouds and laced with old, forgotten magics. No birds sang there. No trees grew. Only stone, wind, and the whispers of things that should have never learned to speak.Selene rode at the front, her cloak soaked from rain, her thoughts louder than the thunder above. Every step closer to the Cradle pulled something inside her tighter. It wasn’t fear. Not exactly. It was something colder. Something deeper.Recognition.She had seen this place before. Not in visions. In dreams. In nightmares.And in one memory she had never told anyone not even Rowan.She remembered standing at the mouth of a cave as a child. She had wandered too far from the pack border. It had been quiet then. Not menacing, not cursed. Just… still. She’d heard
They rode north before dawn.Selene led them in silence, her silver cloak soaked in dew and ash, her shoulders tight with the weight of all she’d seen and all she’d forgotten. She didn’t speak of the Watchers’ warning. Not yet. Not until she knew whether the prophecy spoke of someone else… or of her.Behind her, Rowan rode close, watching the horizon and her back with equal intensity. Agnes sat atop a shadow-stepping elk gifted by the forest, her face lined with sleeplessness. Vera rode ahead of the scouts, her sword strapped across her back and her eyes hard.The wind grew colder with every mile.And the sky grew darker even as the sun rose.They crossed into the Northryn Vale just as the fog began to split. The trees here were dying leaves curling in unnatural patterns, bark blistered from the inside out. Selene felt it in her chest: a pulse that didn’t match her own. An echo of something hollow that had once known how to live.She dismounted without a word.Rowan followed. “It’s cl
The veil did not part so much as consume her. One moment Selene stood on jagged stone, cold wind biting her skin, the next, she was inside a vast, soundless chamber without walls or roof or floor. Only space. Only memory.And silence.Not the absence of noise, but a stillness so complete it pressed against her ribs like a second heartbeat. All light came from within the mist that hovered everywhere, glowing faintly silver, casting long shadows with no source.She didn’t speak. She knew better. The Watchers were listening.From the haze emerged seven figures tall, robed in starlight, faces obscured beneath ever-shifting masks. One wore a mirrored surface. Another, a smooth stone etched with runes. One bore no face at all.They didn’t walk. They arrived, suddenly, as though they had always been there, simply waiting for her to notice.The one with the mirror mask stepped forward.“You carry the mark of the unloved moon.”Selene’s breath caught. “I carry many things.”“You seek what lies
The sky was stained with smoke and gold. Dawn came slowly, casting long shadows over the scorched grove, where blood had been spilled and darkness unspooled like thread from a dying tapestry.Selene stood at the edge of the ruin, her arms wrapped around herself, not from cold, but from the weight of everything she had severed. Behind her, the others moved in silence, gathering what could be saved, tending to wounds that couldn’t be seen.Caden had not spoken since awakening. He sat alone, far from the circle, staring at the ground where the shadow had been burned away. His expression was not one of guilt or grief, but of vacancy. Like a man who had walked too far from himself and couldn’t remember the path back.Rowan approached Selene, his steps quiet in the dew-damp grass. “You should rest.”“I don’t want to close my eyes,” she said. “I’m afraid of what I’ll see.”“You saw worse awake,” he replied.“That’s what scares me.” She looked up at him. “I thought breaking the bond would end
The trees wept crimson, sap turning to blood as darkness spread its roots through the forest. Each leaf shriveled, each branch curled as though retreating from the presence of whatever Caden had unleashed. And yet, he stood in the center of the chaos, untouched, eyes closed, lips moving in silent conversation with the thing that had followed him back.Selene stumbled backward, her breath catching as the screams of the forest echoed through her bones. Agnes gripped her arm, forcing a charm into her palm. "You need to listen to me now," the old seer said, her voice sharp. "What follows him isn’t just a creature—it’s a fracture. A rift in the veil. It will consume everything.""Then why is he still standing?" Rowan demanded, shielding both of them as more of the shadowy tendrils erupted from the earth."Because he thinks he can control it," Agnes spat. "But he can’t. That thing doesn’t bargain. It devours."Selene stared ahead at Caden, trying to piece together what remained of the man s