Chapter 44
Whispers Beneath the Moonlight
The air over Moonshadow Ridge that night seemed charged, as though the mountain itself knew secrets were on the verge of unraveling. The mist that usually hung gently across the valley came rolling in heavy, curling around the pines and cloaking the ground in a ghostly white. A crescent moon carved its silver arc above, throwing light across the ridges, while the restless wind carried with it the smell of pine and damp earth.
Inside the cabin, the atmosphere was no less tense. Elena sat by the fire, her eyes fixed on the flames but her mind elsewhere. Damien was pacing again, his boots clicking against the wooden floorboards in an erratic rhythm that betrayed his thoughts. He had been silent for much of the evening, and silence from Damien was n
