Kora’s POV
The days began to blur together after that. We moved fast, too fast to stop and think, and the haunting memory of Aaron’s voice still echoed in my mind like a distant drumbeat. I could almost feel him tracking us, his presence lurking just behind the fog, the trees, the silence.
It was during one of these tense, fog-filled mornings that I realized just how much we had changed since we left the capital. It wasn’t just the urgency in our steps, or the weariness in our faces. It was the way we moved, the way we had become an army of shadows, always on the edge of danger.
The forest itself felt alive with the weight of our fear. Every snapped twig, every whisper of wind sent us into alert. We were constantly looking over our shoulders, waiting for the blow that would come.
We pa
