Nevara
The walk took hours.
Neither of us shifted.
We stayed in our human forms—silent, tense, and dressed in bloodstained clothes and things unsaid.
The forest stretched endlessly around us, but Thoren never hesitated. He moved like a compass needle locked on a point only he could feel. I kept pace, refusing to ask where we were going, even though every mile scraped raw the question building in my chest.
I thought about the cabin. About the blood on the sheets. The claws on the porch. The basket of yarn I never got to finish. It felt absurd, now. Fragile. Like something that belonged to a softer version of me who no longer existed.
The further we walked, the more I realized we were climbing. Gaining elevation slowly but steadily. The trees began to thin, giving way to wide sloping t
