The forest had always known me before I knew myself.
When the walls of Silvercrest began to feel like a cage and every corridor echoed with whispers I could not outrun, I came here. Beyond the sentry paths, beyond the reach of council eyes and pack laws, the forest opened its arms without judgment. The moon hung low, caught between the branches like a secret it had not yet decided to keep.
I walked until my legs burned, and my thoughts tangled into something sharp and unkind.
I should not have come alone.
I knew that.
But solitude was the only thing that still felt like mine.
Silvercrest is dangerous now.
The thought struck harder than any blade.
Not because of the Dark Breeds. Not because of war looming like a storm on the horizon. But because of what lived inside its walls. Silen
