SILAS POV
The forest around the castle was driving me insane.
Not because it was quiet. I had lived with silence before—real silence, the kind that settled into your bones during long watches and endless nights when the world felt empty without knowing where your love his.
This was different. This was waiting. The kind of nightmare that scraped at your nerves, that made every second stretch too long and every breath feel wrong in your lungs, like your body knew you were standing still when every instinct screamed that you should be moving, fighting, burning something to the ground.
I paced between the trees, back and forth, boots digging deep grooves into damp earth and pine needles. The smell of wet bark and moss clung to the air, sharp and cold, doing nothing to cool the fire crawli
