The forest felt different when she wasn’t running from it.
When she’d fled before, it had been desperation—grief dragging her forward, panic snapping at her heels. This time there was no frantic edge to her steps. No gasping breaths or burning lungs.
Just the steady rhythm of boots against earth.
Step.
Step.
Step.
The Bloodstone wards faded behind her like warmth leaving skin.
Ember didn’t look back.
If she did, she wasn’t sure she’d keep walking.
The sky was still bruised with pre-dawn blue, the world suspended in that fragile hour where night hadn’t quite surrendered but morning hadn’t claimed its victory either. Mist clung low between the trees, curling around roots and fallen branches like something alive.
It felt fitting.
Half in shadow. Half in light.
That was where she e
