The forest was silent when they began their descent. Too silent.
Every step Lyra took seemed louder than it should have, echoing through the bones of the earth. Even the trees felt different here—taller, their roots twisting like serpents, their branches knotted into clawed fingers that blocked out the moonlight.
She had grown up with stories of the Shadowlands. They weren’t bedtime tales but warnings, whispered like curses. Wolves who entered came back hollow-eyed, changed, or didn’t come back at all. And yet here she was, walking willingly into the mouth of the beast.
Kael stayed close, his hand brushing hers every so often, as if he couldn’t bear to let her drift too far from him. His jaw was tight, his shoulders rigid, and though he said nothing, the bond between them pulsed with hi
