I wasn’t listening to Darius.
I could hear him—his voice flowing beside me as we cut through the brush, his words rising and falling like an annoying chant—but I wasn’t absorbing any of it.
My mind was far ahead of my body, racing down a darker corridor entirely. I stepped over roots, brushed aside hanging vines, and let my limbs move on instinct alone.
He was scolding me. Again.
"...Makeh could have told us more if you had just stayed," he was saying, his boots crunching against leaves as he tried to keep up with my long strides. "You storming out like that accomplished nothing, cara. We should have pressed her harder... asked the right questions. There are things she was holding back and you know it—"
I tuned him out deliberately.
The forest shifted around us, alive in that heavy silent way only ancient places could manage. My senses were open and alert, stretched tight across the gloom like fine threads of wire. Every insect click, every dead leaf crushed underfoot, every distant tremor of unnatural energy tugged at my attention. I was listening for what did not belong.
For once, I wanted the danger.
The plan had worked. We had the allegiance of the vampires, and we had our hold in the pack just as we had envisioned. Which meant it was time to move.
Time to send word. Time to tell them to back off. So that it can give me ample time to pretend I was gathering energy to create a dome.
The vampires had to stop attacking—at least temporarily. At least until I had finished what I was planning, until I had set up the dome. Or at the very least, a convincing illusion of one.
But I couldn’t message the Queen from here.
Not in the forest. Maybe when I got to the pack.
The queen could trace magic through the roots if she wanted to. She had always been frighteningly good at things like that—tracking energy, following the echo of spells back to their source. If I tried to send anything now, she would know exactly where I was.
And I wasn’t ready for that war yet.
Darius bumped his elbow into my side in a pointed jab.
I hissed low in my throat as I swatted him away, irritation flaring sharp and violent. "Watch where you’re swinging that relic."
He scoffed. "If you walked slower, I wouldn’t have to."
"Then try keeping up."
He opened his mouth with something rude perched on his tongue.
And then I felt it. The forest went wrong.
Not in the way rot or decay feels wrong—but in the way air does seconds before lightning strikes. My skin tightened. The hairs on my nape rose. The hum beneath the earth shifted pitch, vibrating through my boots and straight through my bones.
Energy. Heavy. Old.
I froze mid-step. My heart sank. "Damn it," I breathed.
Darius followed my gaze in confusion. "What?"
I ignored him.
The forest’s hum had changed shape, thickening like pressure inside a sealed chamber. Something moved through it, bending space around itself without effort. My lungs filled with a smell I hadn’t noticed at first—wet earth and smoke all tangled together.
One of the queen’s beasts. Here. Now.
I cursed and immediately catalogued my options.
None of them were good. Would they still recognize me?
Darius turned in a slow circle, scanning the trees. "Sage... what is that sound?"
I lied. "It’s nothing," I said briskly. "The forest makes noises like this sometimes."
He frowned, unconvinced—but before he could argue, his body stiffened beside me.
He felt it now.
The ground vibrated.
Slow footsteps.
Heavy ones.
Each step pressed deep into the soil, and each heartbeat after carried closer. Branches snapped under impossible weight. Shadows folded strangely between the trees, thickening instead of thinning.
Darius swallowed. "That’s not the forest."
No.
It wasn’t.
I turned to him sharply. "Turn to mist," I hissed. "Now."
He obeyed without thinking—pure instinct kicking in—but nothing happened.
His eyes widened when his body remained stubbornly solid.
He tried again. Nothing.
His gaze flew to me in wild disbelief. "You—"
I lifted a brow coolly. "Caged you."
His mouth tightened. "You trapped my magic."
"Yes."
"Why—"
"Because worrying and talking about me made you sloppy."
He bristled just as something vast moved from the shadows ahead.
The beast stepped into view. It was exactly as I had seen it in my dream. But bigger. Worse.
Tusks curved from its skull like pale moons, enormous and smoking faintly at the tips. Its body rose as tall as the forest itself, a mass of dark hide streaked with ancient scars.
Its eyes were molten embers beneath layers of flesh and shadow. Mud slid from its limbs with each step. Steam curled from its mouth.
In my dream, it had been submerged in thick black water. I hadn’t known it could walk.
Fear wrapped itself around my spine. Cold. But I didn’t move. What was the need? Could one escape something like this?
The beast halted a few feet from us. Smoke rolled from between its tusks. It stared. And the silence stretched long.
Then—
"I am glad you still live."
The mouth did not move. But the voice filled my head like a drumbeat.
My knees nearly buckled.
Darius inhaled sharply beside me. So he could hear it too.
The beast tilted its head. "You have returned to fulfill your fate."
I swallowed. Said nothing.
I bowed instead. Deliberate. Then I lifted my head just enough to meet its glowing eyes and said, "I brought you food."
Darius choked.
The beast laughed. The sound cracked through the forest like thunder splitting mountains. Trees trembled. Birds exploded into flight. The earth quaked beneath us. It was glorious. And terrifying.
The beast leaned closer. "That is funny," it said. "The one beside you—he is your friend. Why should you offer him to me?"
I frowned. Because Makeh said...
El laughed inside my skull. Foolish little thing! Did you forget who the beasts answer to first?
The goddess. Not me. Not yet. Heat flushed my ears.
The beast straightened slowly. "I await your rising," it murmured. "And I am pleased you yet draw breath."
Then it turned, and walked away. Just like that. The forest exhaled, as if relieved.
Darius stared after it, then at me. "You offered me as food."
I shrugged. "Had no choice... you are a nuisance."
He stalked past me in silent fury, without saying any word, or even looking at me.
We followed the beast as it carved a path through the woods, heading toward Peter’s house at the forest’s edge. The trees thinned, light creeping in softly between the trunks.
And still Darius said nothing. Not a single word.
I almost wanted him to yell. Almost. But silence was safer.
Guilt, on the other hand... I crushed it under my boots and kept walking.