Theo’s warning lingered long after he vanished into the forest, answering the Elders’ summons. His scent clung to the training grounds, warm and electric, and though I tried to steady myself, a strange heaviness pulled at my chest. Something was shifting inside me—something old, something inevitable.
But nothing could have prepared me for what waited back at the Montenegro estate.
Sofia
When I stepped inside the manor, the silence felt strange. Not empty—expectant. As if the walls held their breath.
I moved through the hallway, still shaken from training, still feeling the ghost of Theo’s hand along my jaw, when I noticed a single object resting on the front console table.
A box.
Small, wooden, and tied shut with a faded silver ribbon.
My steps faltered.
The handwriting on the lid
