The morning before the eclipse was cold and grey. The sky looked heavy, like it was waiting for something bad to happen. The air was still, thick with a strange energy that made the hairs on my arms stand up. Everyone in the packhouse felt it — that quiet dread before the storm.
I barely slept the night before. My dreams had been full of whispers and flashes of light, and when I woke, I could already feel the pull inside me. It wasn’t pain, not exactly — more like something tugging at the core of who I was, trying to draw me toward the forest. Toward the ruins. Toward the door.
Jax didn’t leave my side. He made sure I ate something, though I could barely taste it. His eyes followed me everywhere I went, full of worry he tried to hide.
The eclipse was only hours away.
I was sitting by t
