Elara's POV
I knew I should turn back.
That thought had been running alongside me since I left the academy, steady and quiet, the reasonable part of my brain making its case while the rest of me kept moving forward through the trees with my wolf's attention fixed on the trail and no real intention of stopping.
Curiosity had always lived in my whole body, not just my head. Right now every part of me was pulling forward, toward him, toward whatever was at the end of this trail, toward the answer to the question I had been carrying for weeks without being able to get close to it.
What was he? Who was he really? Why did being near him feel like standing too close to something that could burn me if I wasn't careful?
The forest changed around me as I walked deeper. The trees grew older, t
