Carter’s POV
The Wildlands weren’t just a stretch of lawless territory. They were a test,and I was failing it with every step I took.
Snow crunched beneath my boots, half-melted and slick over the uneven ground. My lungs burned. The cold wind sliced through my coat like knives, but I didn’t slow down. Couldn’t. Not when I was this close.
“Faster,” Kale snapped from within me. “She’s near. I can smell her.”
I could too,just barely. Faint, scattered traces of her scent drifted through the trees. Not the clean, lavender-and-rain I remembered. This was earthier. Stressed. Worn thin by cold and pain.
Ruby.
It had been days since Evie came to me. She found me, her face pale, eyes haunted, voice shaking as she told me Ruby was gone,that she’d escaped Jake, and now she was out here somewhere
