CLAIRE
The practice grounds were empty when I arrived.
The main facility lights were off, but the perimeter lamps cast long, uneven shadows across the path leading toward the wooded area behind the fields. The forest bordering the training grounds felt heavier tonight, as if the air itself had thickened and settled low.
I should not have been there after hours. I knew that.
But three days of silence had burned through my patience and left something raw behind it, something that refused to be ignored any longer.
I followed instinct instead of reason.
The deeper I went, the quieter it became. The sounds of the city faded until there was only wind moving through the leaves and the steady beat of my own heart. The moon hung low above the treeline, swollen and bright, castin
