The forest had no breath left. Only silence.
Heavy, suffocating, reverent silence—as if the very world had paused in deference to the thing that had just passed through.
Rose didn’t move.
She couldn’t.
The demon's words still coiled inside her like smoke in the lungs—thick, cloying, impossible to cough out.
Alex stood just behind her, sword forgotten in his hand, his fire flickering low around his skin. The Dragon Lord didn’t speak either, his golden eyes fixed on Rose with a kind of wary, ancient patience. Not judgment. Not quite. But a waiting.
Pib curled tighter around her leg, still growling low.
It was Alex who finally broke the quiet.
“What did he mean, Rose?”
His voice was soft. Hurt threaded through it like old scar tissue tearing open. His flames warmed the air but didn’t
