( Aria's POV )
The wind carried screams through the trees.
Not human, not wolf, something worse. The kind of sound that made the earth remember old wars and old gods.
Kael’s voice cut through the chaos behind me. “Aria, keep moving!”
Branches tore at my arms as I ran. The mist was alive now, churning like a storm made of whispers and claws. Every shadow lunged from the corner of my sight, then vanished. I didn’t know if they were real or tricks of my fear.
The forest’s pulse beat in time with mine. Every root, every drop of rain, every shiver in the wind seemed tied to the pounding in my chest. I could still feel the power, the same silver heat that had burst from me before, but now it was fragmented, wild, cutting through my veins like lightning with no place to land.
I stumbled in
