ELLIE‘S POV
The night air pressed heavy against my skin, thick with tension, clinging like a second layer of flesh. It wasn’t just the cool bite of wind threading through the trees, it was something deeper, older, more suffocating, as though the land itself knew I was trespassing where I should not go. My lungs felt tighter with every breath, but still I pushed forward, slipping silently beyond Crimson Fang’s borders.
I hadn’t told anyone. Not Jovani, not Lira, not even the sentries whose sharp eyes patrolled the edges of our territory. If they knew where I was going, they would have stopped me. They would have dragged me back by the arm if they had to, because this path I had chosen would be called reckless, foolish, maybe even betrayal.
But none of them could hear what I did. None of
