Chapter 42 – Whispers Beneath the Ridge
The ridge was unusually quiet that night. The usual chorus of crickets, owls, and the faint rustle of wind through the pines seemed to have muted themselves, as though the mountain itself was holding its breath. A heavy silver fog clung to the valley below, spilling upward in curling tendrils that licked at the edges of Moonshadow Ridge like unseen hands.
Elena stood at the balcony rail of Damien’s ancestral home, her eyes straining against the horizon where the ridge cut a jagged silhouette against the sky. The weight of everything that had happened in the past few weeks pressed on her chest like an invisible burden. The danger wasn’t gone—not with the shadowed figure that had been stalking them, not with the unanswered questions about Damien’s pa
