The forest was too quiet.
Seraphine felt it before she heard it the unnatural stillness pressing against her skin, crawling along her spine like cold fingers. Even the wolves had gone silent. No wind. No rustling leaves. No distant howls.
Just a suffocating hush.
Her hand slid instinctively toward the blade hidden beneath her sleeve.
This silence wasn’t peace.
It was a warning.
She stepped deeper into the shadows between the trees, senses stretched tight, every muscle coiled. The Nightfall territory ended several miles behind her, but she could still feel Lucien’s presence like a phantom pull inside her chest.
A mistake.
She shouldn’t have left the pack grounds alone.
But something had called her out here.
Something familiar.
The air shifted.
Then
“Still alive, I see.”
The vo
