The night pressed close around Maris Vale, thick with the scent of damp leaves and something sharper. Her boots sank into the soft forest floor, each step muffled yet unnervingly loud in her ears. She told herself the quickened thud of her pulse was just from the cold, just from the darkness… but a sliver of unease coiled low in her belly, refusing to loosen.
Somewhere behind her, branches whispered.
She didn’t turn.
The forest was alive at night, she knew that. The sound could have been the wind, a stray animal, anything at all. And yet… her skin prickled, the fine hairs on her nape rising as if in recognition. She drew her coat tighter and kept walking, but the feeling stayed with her, growing heavier, as if unseen eyes tracked every move she made.
If she’d looked back then, she migh
