The moonlight felt wrong.
Too bright for a half-moon. Too heavy on my skin. I should’ve been asleep hours ago, but I couldn’t close my eyes—not with my heart still tangled in Lucian’s voice, not with the bond humming like a second heartbeat beneath my skin.
I opened the window wider, letting the breeze carry in the scent of pine and silverdew. The stars above were sharp, almost painful to look at.
And then I heard it.
A soft whisper.
Not Nyra.
Not my own thoughts.
Something older.
Something… calling me.
I didn’t remember leaving the clinic.
But suddenly, I was in the forest.
Barefoot.
The leaves were damp under my feet, the ground cool and pulsing like it was alive. The trees shifted around me—not menacing, but watchful.
And ahead?
A glow.
Soft. Pale blue. Like moonlight mad
