I didn’t join the rogue patrol because someone asked me to. No one did. I wasn’t assigned, wasn’t expected. But I needed to move, needed air that didn’t taste like fear or memory.
After everything, the runes, the whispers, the face in the mirror, I couldn’t sit still. Maybe if I acted, if I protected something, even briefly, I’d remind myself that I was still real.
The forest was thinner here. The scent of scorched wood clung to the wind, making the back of my throat burn. I walked in silence behind Rogan, the scout, while the others fanned out, weapons drawn.
They had felt it too, vibrations deep in the earth, too low to hear, but unmistakable. Like something growling beneath the roots.
Maddox hadn’t joined us. I hadn’t seen him since the night he’d bled into the stone, trying to se
