The forest swallowed sound in a way that made my skin crawl. Not silent. Just wrong. The kind of quiet that felt curated. Intentional. Like someone had turned the volume down on the world so I would hear only what they wanted me to.
The wolf tracks cut straight across the snow, leading away from my house as if the creature had been pacing there. Waiting. Watching. My breath fogged in front of me as I followed them. My boots crunched over frost and dead leaves, my thoughts flickering like dying embers.
Behind me Leah yelled my name. Nathan’s voice followed, sharper, deeper, slicing through the cold like a blade. I ignored them both. If my mother’s voice had called to me from the edge of the woods, I was damn well going to find out why.
The further I went, the heavier the air became. Not
