Ella’s POV
The forest was unnaturally still.
Even the wind, always so quick to whisper through the high pines, held its breath.
I walked beside Remo, every step filled with the weight of something unspoken. It had been hours since we left the Elder's Hall after the trial. Hours since their gazes pressed against my spine like cold steel. They hadn't said anything—nothing direct. But I felt it. That something was shifting in their world. In mine.
"You've been quiet," Remo said finally, voice low. Controlled. But there was a rasp beneath it, like gravel beneath a boot—tension he was barely suppressing.
"There's something pulling me here," I murmured, eyes scanning the overgrown path. "Like I've been here before... but not like this."
He looked at me then, that sharp, unreadable stare.
