The path twisted like a serpent beneath Samantha’s feet, the damp earth muffling her steps as the trees thickened around her. Dawn had barely broken, casting a pale light over the Black Ridge Mountains, but the forest ahead swallowed the sun whole. Fog curled around tree trunks, ghostlike and cold. Her breaths came shallow, not from exhaustion—but from the bone-deep awareness that she was no longer protected, no longer wanted.
Behind her, three guards trudged in silence. They weren’t the cruel type—at least, not like the ones who had laughed when her name was spat with scorn before the Council. These ones were quieter. Older. Their steps slower, less sure.
The youngest of the three, a tall man with russet hair and a scar slicing through one brow, kept glancing her way, guilt etched in th
