POV: Nixie
The night felt cold fingers pressed to my skin as I stared at the blood-marked tree. Hunter's scent was fading, drifting deeper into the forest like some cruel echo I couldn't catch. My pulse thundered in my throat, a frantic warning that something terrible had already begun.
Selene was still gone. And now Hunter—my mate, my betrayer—was the one taunting us with blood.
My hands shook as I touched the crimson smear on the bark. Still warm.
Trixie stood some steps behind me, her silence unusual. Even the air seemed to hold its breath around her; the very thought of what she might utter daunted the forest. Confidence had always been a weapon carried within her, but tonight uncertainty clung to her like fog.
“He wants you to follow him,” she whispered.
I knew that. I didn’t ne
