Whispers of Betrayal
The darkness pressed down on them like a living thing. Every instinct in Ridge screamed danger, every sense was on high alert, yet nothing in his centuries of battles had prepared him for the raw, suffocating power that now swirled around him. The forest—the very world they knew—had warped into an alien nightmare, trees bending and twisting like molten metal, the sky overhead shredded into ribbons of silver and black.
Aria clung to his arm, silver glow pulsing brighter than ever, her energy a fragile beacon in the overwhelming void. “Ridge… this… this isn’t normal. This isn’t just a shadow,” she said, her voice strained, trembling against the oppressive weight of the darkness.
Ridge growled low, his claws scraping against the moss that had once been solid earth. “I
