Irina’s POV
“Are we close?” I asked. I wasn’t tired yet, but we had been walking so long that the forest seemed to swallow the light. The trees grew denser, their trunks ancient and gnarled, roots twisting over the uneven ground like serpents. Even the air felt heavier here.
Or perhaps I was the one who felt things differently after I woke up.
Rylan glanced back at me, his eyes sharp in the dim light. “Almost,” he said. “They hide deep enough that no patrol ever finds them. That’s how they’ve survived this long after the attack.”
I nodded, though a flicker of unease rippled through me. The hum under my skin grew stronger the deeper we went, like something buried in the heart of this forest was calling out to me—recognizing me.
The silence stretched between us, broken only by the cru
