The forest was a different world by night, especially for those running from everything they knew. Kael moved with an instinctive grace Elara had never seen in him, his steps silent on the damp earth, his body weaving through the undergrowth as if he were part of the shifting shadows. She followed, her own senses heightened by adrenaline, the scholarly part of her mind cataloging the strange new ease with which he navigated the total dark.
They traveled for hours, putting distance between themselves and Stonehaven’s borders, before Kael signaled a halt in a small, rocky hollow sheltered by a waterfall’s spray. The sound of rushing water would mask their voices. He crouched, his eyes scanning the treeline they’d just left, the obsidian pendant a dark gleam in the moonlight filtering throug
