I was standing in a forest shrouded in shadows, the trees stretching endlessly into a suffocating black. Smoke curled through the underbrush, and the air pulsed with the scent of ash and blood. The fire crackled in the distance, licking up the trunks of ancient trees like a hungry beast. I ran toward the flames not away.
Then I saw him.
Jayden.
He stood in the fire, unburned, his body wreathed in glowing embers. His eyes silver and crimson pierced through the smoke as if searching for something, or someone. Me?
But as I reached out to him, the ground trembled. Another figure emerged behind him, stepping from the charred shadows. A man, tall and broad like Jayden, but colder. Eyes identical to his and yet devoid of all warmth.
The second man touched Jayden’s shoulder.
Jayden didn’t mo
