They returned home from the old mountain in complete silence. No one spoke during the entire journey back. The weight of what they had seen hung heavy over all of them, especially over Aria.
The sun was setting by the time they finally crossed the border back into pack territory. The familiar pack lights were already on, glowing warmly in the gathering dusk. They looked welcoming and safe, like beacons calling them home. But despite the warmth of those lights, Aria felt completely cold inside.
She couldn't stop thinking about what she had seen in that cave. The shadow in the stone. The dark version of herself staring back at her with those empty, soulless eyes. The way that shadow version had smiled at her, cold and cruel and knowing.
"You'll come to me," the shadow had said, and those words kept looping endlessly in Aria's head. Over and over and over, until she thought she might go crazy from hearing them.
