The forest had no end.
No sky. No direction. Only the sound of my own breathing and the weight of Mara in my arms.
I ran blind, guided by instinct. The night closed behind me like a wall of shadow, and the red wolves were still following us—I could feel them, even if I couldn’t see them anymore. They weren’t running. They were hunting.
My lungs burned. My body ached as if pieces of flesh were being torn from me with every stride, but I couldn’t stop. Mara stirred now and then, unconscious. Her breathing was shallow, fragile. I’d been running for hours, not knowing where. I only knew one thing: I had to get out of that cursed forest.
Dawn began to break between the trees. I kept running until the ground sloped downward and the scent changed—wet earth, moss, stagnant water.
A lagoon.
I
