The forest changed on the third day, and everyone in the party felt it before anyone said so aloud.
Birdsong thinned first, then vanished entirely, replaced by a silence so complete Eva found herself straining for any sound at all — hoofbeats, wind, her own heartbeat — as though the woods themselves were holding their breath around them. Reyna doubled the perimeter watch without being asked. Even the horses grew skittish, ears flattening at shadows that held nothing when the guards checked them.
"This isn't natural," Kieran said quietly, riding close beside Eva as the trail narrowed further. "I've traveled through old, unfriendly territory before. This is different. This feels like the land itself remembers something it would rather forget."
They found the abandoned settlement just past
