Chapter 27: The Voice Beneath the Vale
The Vale was not a place meant for the living.
When Kairo and Kaelen descended into its fog-choked depths, the air grew heavy — thick enough to feel like breath pressed against their skin.
The fog wasn’t just mist; it shimmered faintly with threads of red and silver, as though the moon itself had bled into the air.
Every step echoed strangely, too loud and too long, as if the ground beneath them remembered every trespass that had ever stained it.
Kairo’s wolf stirred restlessly inside him, pacing, ears pricked to sounds only it could hear.
They’re watching, it whispered in his mind. The dead. The forgotten.
Kaelen scanned the shadows, hand on his sword. “I hate this place.”
“You’re not alone,” Kairo muttered. His gaze flicked upward — the moon
