Raine POV
The woods swallowed me whole the moment I stepped past the last line of stone markers. For the first few minutes, I felt like I was gliding. Easy. Confident.
I have read in books that the longevity flower bloomed best in the dry stretches of the forest, and from the crunch of brittle leaves beneath my boots, I knew I was in the right place. An hour, I told myself. Just an hour and I’d be back before anyone noticed I’d slipped away.
Except an hour passed. Then two. Then three. By the fourth, the only thing I had managed to collect were scratches on my hands and an armful of herbs that might be useful someday but weren’t glowing, fabled blossoms of immortality.
I stopped beneath a gnarled oak, dropping the latest batch of roots into my satchel. “Congratulations, Raine,” I mut
