CHAPTER 61 – The Red Hunter

POV: CorinNight settled over the forgotten village like a shroud.The ruined cottages had gone dark, their broken windows staring blankly into the forest as the others rested inside the central hall. A small fire burned low near the entrance, its glow barely strong enough to keep the shadows at bay.Corin had volunteered for the first patrol.Truthfully, he had not wanted sleep.Not after what had happened with the map.Not after the stone had answered the twins.The forest beyond the ruined settlement felt wrong.Too still.Too aware.He moved silently between the trees, boots barely disturbing the carpet of fallen leaves. Moonlight slipped through the branches in fractured streaks, painting pale lines across the earth.The silver moon was high.But now and then, through breaks in the canopy, Corin caught the red one.Watching.His hand rested near the hilt of the blade strapped across his back.The deeper he walked, the quieter the forest became.Then he noticed it.There were no b

CHAPTER 62 – Blood in the Wind

POV: DelphThe night did not settle again.Even after the creature vanished, even after the forest fell silent once more, something had shifted, something that could not be undone.The air itself felt different.Tighter.Watching.Delph stood at the edge of the ruined village, his gaze fixed on the dark treeline where the creature had disappeared. The faint scent of iron still lingered, carried on a wind that seemed to breathe too slowly, too deliberately.Behind him, the others gathered near the central hall.No one returned to sleep.Not after that.A small fire burned low, its glow flickering across tense faces and drawn weapons. Shadows stretched long against broken stone walls, shifting with every movement.Delph turned and walked back toward them.The moment he stepped into the firelight, every eye lifted.Waiting.That familiar weight settled onto his shoulders again.Leadership.Decision.Responsibility.He did not hesitate.“We tighten the watch,” he said, voice steady and co

CHAPTER 63 – The Hidden Pack

POV: AfnanThe forest thickened as they moved east.By midmorning, the path they had followed since leaving the ruined village had all but vanished, swallowed by roots and undergrowth that seemed determined to keep outsiders away. Towering trees closed in above them, their branches woven so tightly that even the twin moons’ lingering presence from the night before felt distant now.Still, Afnan felt watched.Not by the same presence as before.This was different.Closer.Breathing.Living.She slowed her horse slightly, her gaze sweeping the shadows between the trees.Delph noticed immediately.“What is it?”Her voice remained low.“We’re not alone.”That was all it took.The entire group shifted.Kael’s hand moved to his blade.Sera’s fingers brushed the string of her bow.Corin straightened in his saddle, scanning the forest with renewed sharpness.The twins went quiet.Even the wind seemed to hold its breath.Then,A twig snapped.To their left.Another behind them.Then one ahead.

CHAPTER 64 – The Keeper of Bones

POV: CorinThe cave breathed.That was the first thing Corin noticed as he stepped past the threshold.Not wind.Not echo.Something deeper.Slower.Like the place itself was alive.Behind him, the forest had been thick with quiet tension, the hidden pack watching from the trees, their presence impossible to ignore. But here,Inside the sacred cave of the Eastern Wolves, the silence was different.Heavier.Older.It pressed against his skin like memory.A torch burned low near the entrance, its flame bending slightly as if disturbed by an unseen current. Beyond it, the cave stretched into darkness, its walls glistening faintly with moisture and something else,something pale that caught the light in unsettling ways.Bones.Corin stepped further inside.They were everywhere.Not scattered.Arranged.Deliberately placed along the walls, stacked into arches, woven into patterns that curved upward like ribs of something long dead. Skulls rested in niches carved into the stone, their hollow

CHAPTER 65 – Reflections of Power

POV: AfnanThe air in the Eastern grounds felt different at dawn.Not lighter.Not calmer.Just… aware.Afnan stood at the edge of a clearing carved into the forest, where the trees grew in a perfect circle as if shaped by intention rather than nature. Their trunks twisted inward slightly, branches arching overhead to form a living dome that filtered the morning light into soft, fractured beams.It reminded her of the chamber beneath Bloodstone.Of the Gate.Of something watching.She inhaled slowly, steadying herself.Across from her, the Keeper of Bones stood motionless, their presence as quiet and rooted as the forest itself.“You feel it,” the seer said.Not a question.Afnan nodded.“It’s stronger here.”The mark on her wrist pulsed faintly beneath her sleeve, as though answering the very ground beneath her feet.The Keeper inclined their head.“This land sits closer to the echo of the Gate.”Afnan’s fingers curled slightly.“Echo,” she repeated.“Yes.”The seer stepped forward,

CHAPTER 66 – The Alpha’s Fear

POV: DelphNight settled slowly over the Eastern forest.Not like the wild, open skies of Bloodstone.Here, darkness gathered in layers.Between branches.Under roots.Inside the spaces where light never quite reached.Delph stood at the edge of the settlement, just beyond the last ring of watchfires, where the forest began to swallow the world again.He preferred it here.Closer to the unknown.Closer to whatever might come.Because if something was coming,he would meet it first.Behind him, the camp had quieted.The Eastern Wolves kept their distance, their movements ghostlike between trees, watchful even in stillness. Delph had learned quickly, this pack did not sleep the way others did.They listened.Always.But tonight, even that constant awareness felt… strained.As if something deeper than instinct had unsettled the land itself.Delph exhaled slowly, his breath visible in the cool night air.Then he turned.His gaze found them immediately.Afnan and the twins slept beneath a