**The Last Sanctuary**
### **1. The Ashen Path**
The forest grew quieter the farther north they traveled.
No birds sang. No insects hummed. Even the wind seemed to hold its breath as they picked their way through the skeletal remains of trees, their bark blackened and peeling like burned skin.
Mikey led the way, his steps sure despite the exhaustion dragging at his limbs. The shadows in his veins had grown restless, pulsing in time with some unseen rhythm only he could hear.
*—closer—*
*—almost home—*
Zelene’s fingers brushed his wrist. **“You’re bleeding.”**
He glanced down. Dark streaks ran from his nose, his ears, the corners of his eyes. Not red.
*Black.*
**“It’s fine,”** he lied, wiping it away.
The obsidian shard in his pocket *burned*.
### **2. Th
