A Bond Fractured, A Fate Entwined
The old woman’s words clung to Rowan’s skin like a second layer, suffocating and inescapable.
“The curse will not stop,” she had said, her voice as brittle as dried leaves. “It festers in the bond you severed. It does not just punish—it consumes. If you do nothing, it will take everything.”
She had looked at both of them, her milky white eyes locking them in place like a judgment passed down by something older than time itself.
“You are bound still,” she had continued. “No matter how far you ran, no matter what you told yourselves. You think a rejection is enough to break fate? Foolish wolves. Fate is crueler than you know.”
Rowan had barely breathed through the elder’s prophecy, and beside him, Caleb had remained stiff, unmoving, his face a mask of i
