I ran until my lungs burned like they were filled with crushed glass.
The forest was a nightmare landscape. The trees didn't just stand; they leaned. Their branches hooked like skeletal fingers, snagging my velvet dress, trying to pull me down into the snow. The air was so cold it felt solid, a wall of ice I had to break through with every step.
And behind me, the darkness was gaining.
It wasn’t footsteps. It was a sound like tearing fabric, a wet, heavy ripping noise that echoed inside my skull.
Run, Adrien had said.
But Lucian had said: Be water.
And Maelle had said: Find the thread.
I vaulted over a frozen log, my boots skidding on the ice. I scrambled up a ridge, my breath coming in ragged gasps. I reached the high ground Lucian had pointed out on the map, a circle of ancient s
