**DAMIEN’S POV**
The forest grows denser the deeper we go. Branches knit tightly overhead, blocking out most of the sky, leaving only thin streaks of light that flicker like dying candles. The ground is soft beneath my boots, damp with old rain and scattered with needles from the towering pines. The smell of moss mixes with cold earth, the same scent I remember from childhood visits here.
Except now every sound makes my muscles tense.
The rustle of leaves. The snap of distant twigs. The faint hiss of wind threading through the branches.
This place used to be a sanctuary, a retreat from the noise of our family expectations. Adrian and I would sprint through these woods until our lungs burned. We made forts out of fallen branches. We hid from our tutors. We climbed trees that now look fa
