The third morning after the relay, the wind changed.
Not a normal shift the kind that carried weather but something deeper, like the air itself was waiting for my next breath before deciding which way to move.
Kira noticed it first. “You hear that?” she asked, scanning the empty road ahead.
I listened. The forest was silent. Then, faintly, leaves trembled even though there was no breeze.
“It’s synced again,” I said. “To me.”
“Your heartbeat?”
“Maybe worse.”
---
We walked for hours along the cracked highway. Clouds built above the mountains thick, gray, heavy. Each rumble of thunder matched the rhythm in my chest.
Kira kept glancing up. “If you’re summoning storms, at least think about sunlight for a change.”
“I’m not doing anything.”
She gave me a half-smile. “That’s the
