Night pressed heavily against the forest, thick with the scent of rain-soaked earth and old moss. Leaves whispered overhead, stirred by a wind that carried more than weather. Somewhere deep among the roots and ruins, something waited.

  The camp sat at the forest’s edge, tucked beside the broken arch of an ancient glyph-way. Stone pillars, half-swallowed by vines and lichen, curved toward one another like the ribs of a long-dead giant. Moss coated their surfaces so thickly it softened the sharp angles of the runes carved into them—runes that had not been touched in centuries.

  Lanterns flickered low, their light trembling in the rising wind. Shadows stretched and shrank across tired faces.

  Naela sat apart from the others.

  Her knees were drawn to her chest, arms wrapped tightly around herself as she traced the mourning glyph on her wrist. It pulsed faintly beneath her fingertip, not bright enough to cast light, but strong enough that she could feel it—an echo that sank into her bones, steady and insistent.

  Kara approached quietly, boots barely disturbing the leaf litter.

  “You haven’t eaten,” Kara said.

  Naela didn’t look up. “I’m not hungry.”

  “That’s not the point.”

  Naela hesitated, then lifted her gaze. Her eyes were shadowed, rimmed red with exhaustion rather than tears.

  “When it looked at me,” she said softly, “it wasn’t just rage. It was… like it knew me. Like it remembered something.”

  Aylen snorted from beside the fire, where she was tightening the bindings on her staff. “Beasts don’t remember. They survive. That’s all.”

  Binyamin glanced up from where he sat sharpening his blade. The rhythmic scrape of whetstone against steel paused.

  “You’ve fought enough of them to know that’s not always true,” he said.

  Aylen’s jaw tightened. “And you’ve fought enough to know mercy gets you killed.”

  The words hung between them, sharp as drawn steel.

  Kara stepped in before either could push further. “Whatever it was,” she said, “it hesitated. That’s worth something. Maybe enough to—”

  She stopped mid-sentence.

  The ground hummed.

  It wasn’t loud. It wasn’t violent. It was subtle enough that anyone less attuned might have mistaken it for distant thunder. But the stone beneath their feet vibrated with a slow, measured pulse.

  The broken glyph-way arch answered.

  Faint light seeped from the runes etched along its surface, washing moss and stone in a pale glow. The rhythm was unmistakable—like a heartbeat waking after centuries of stillness.

  Binyamin was on his feet instantly. “That’s not natural.”

  Aylen’s grip tightened on her staff. “Neither is she.”

  All eyes turned to Naela.

  Her glyph was glowing brighter now, its pulse perfectly synchronized with the arch’s light.

  “I’m not doing this,” Naela said quickly, panic threading her voice. “I swear—I’m not—”

  The pulse changed.

  It sharpened. Accelerated.

  Somewhere beyond the ruins, faint red glimmers appeared between the trees. They moved with purpose, sliding from shadow to shadow in patterns too precise to be mistaken for fireflies—or chance.

  Binyamin’s voice dropped. “Scouts.”

  Aylen’s expression darkened. “Not just scouts. Concord trackers.”

  Kara swore under her breath. “Then we move. Now.”

  The camp dissolved into motion. Bedrolls were yanked free, lanterns extinguished, supplies packed with practiced efficiency. Years of survival had honed them for moments like this.

  All except one.

  Naela hadn’t moved.

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  She stood frozen before the arch, the glyph-light reflecting in her wide eyes.

  Kara grabbed her arm. “Naela!”

  “It’s calling me,” Naela whispered.

  “Ignore it,” Binyamin snapped. “Or it’ll get us all killed.”

  Thunder cracked overhead.

  Rain came down hard, drenching the clearing in seconds. Lightning tore across the sky, illuminating the forest in stark flashes—and revealing them.

  Figures moved between the trees.

  Masks of cold stone. Cloaks dark and unmarked. Concord hunters advanced in silent formation, their glyph-etched weapons glowing faintly red.

  Aylen’s voice was barely audible. “Too late.”

  Steel rang.

  Binyamin drew his blade just in time to block the first strike. The impact sent sparks skidding across the wet ground as glyph steel clashed with glyph steel.

  “Keep them away from Naela!” he shouted.

  “Easier said than done!” Kara called back, hurling a dagger. It buried itself in a hunter’s mask with a crack of stone and bone.

  A staff slammed into the ground.

  Binding glyphs erupted outward, serpentine lines of red light slithering across the mud toward Naela. Aylen leapt forward, slamming her own staff down as counter-runes flared in brilliant blue. The bindings shattered mid-surge, exploding into harmless fragments of light.

  “You’ll have to do better than that!” Aylen snarled.

  Another hunter dropped from the canopy, blade flashing toward Kara’s throat.

  Binyamin intercepted mid-air.

  The collision rang like a bell.

  They crashed to the ground together, sparks and rain flying as Binyamin drove the hunter back with a brutal kick. He barely had time to recover before another strike came in from the side.

  Naela stumbled backward, heart hammering, clutching her wrist. Her glyph was blazing now, its light spilling across the battlefield like a beacon.

  The hunters saw it.

  Their movements shifted instantly, predatory focus snapping into place.

  “Target acquired,” a voice announced—cold, amplified, utterly devoid of hesitation.

  Kara spun toward Naela. “Don’t you dare run toward that arch!”

  “I’m not!” Naela cried. “It’s—it’s pulling me!”

  The glyph-way answered her fear.

  Its pulse grew louder, faster. Runes ignited along the arch’s curve, shedding moss and stone as violent light tore free. The storm overhead churned, lightning drawn toward the awakening structure like iron to a magnet.

  A hunter broke through the line, closing fast.

  Aylen shouted an incantation and thrust her staff forward. A wave of force slammed into the hunter, hurling them through a tree with a splintering crash.

  “Go!” Aylen gasped. “Move! Now!”

  Binyamin carved a path through two more attackers, blood steaming in the rain. “Kara, take Naela and run! We’ll hold them!”

  “You’ll die if we split!” Kara yelled back.

  “Better us than her,” Binyamin said without hesitation.

  Naela’s breath hitched.

  Her gaze flicked between them, terror warring with something deeper—something answering the call thrumming through the air.

  Then her glyph flared.

  White light exploded outward, blinding everyone in the clearing.

  The pulse from the arch became a roar.

  Runes tore free from the stone, spinning into the air like living blades. Hunters staggered, shields raised too late.

  “Contain it!” the hunter captain shouted. “Now—”

  The glyph-way detonated.

  Raw energy ripped outward in a shockwave that flattened trees and hurled bodies through the rain-soaked dark. Sound vanished. Light consumed everything.

  For a single, suspended moment—

  Nothing existed.