Aurelia's POV
Night came without ceremony.
No horns. No alarms. Just the slow dimming of the sky and the sense that every shadow had learned my name.
I didn't sleep in my parents' home. That had been part of the agreement—unspoken, but understood. Familiar places were predictable, and predictability was a weakness now. Instead, we moved between safe points Talon had mapped out long before anyone thought we would need them. Old patrol shelters. Abandoned watch posts. Clearings warded with quiet, stubborn magic.
Tonight, we stopped near the river.
The water moved steadily, dark and reflective, carrying moonlight in broken pieces. I sat on a flat stone near the bank, boots dangling inches above the current, and tried to slow my breathing.
Raffyn crouched nearby, fire reduced to a dull warmth beneath his skin. Lucien leaned against a tree behind me, wings folded tight, eyes never leaving the forest. Talon knelt at the edge of the water, fingers brushing the surface as if listening to something only he could hear.
"You feel it too," I said quietly.
Talon nodded. "He's closer."
Not physically. Not yet.
But his attention pressed against my awareness like a low, constant pressure. Not loud. Not threatening. Patient.
Silvara appeared without sound, stepping out of the trees as if she'd always been there. "He's waiting for you to overreach."
Raffyn scoffed softly. "He'll be waiting a long time."
"Don't be so sure," she replied. "Jarek doesn't rush the kill. He starves it."
A chill settled into my bones.
We stayed there longer than planned, listening to the river and the forest beyond it. Nothing happened. That, somehow, felt worse.
It was Talon who noticed the shift first.
He straightened slowly. "The water's changing."
I followed his gaze. The river's surface had gone unnaturally smooth, its usual ripples stilled as if something beneath it had gone rigid.
Then the scream cut through the night.
It wasn't close—but it wasn't far either.
Lucien was moving before the echo faded. "That came from the southern path."
Raffyn was already on his feet. "That's near the outer farms."
My heart slammed into my ribs. "That's where Kaia lives."
Silvara swore under her breath.
We ran.
The forest blurred around us, branches whipping past, roots tearing at our boots. The closer we got, the stronger the smell of fear became—sharp, acidic, wrong. Smoke curled up between the trees, thin but unmistakable.
By the time we reached the clearing, the damage was done.
A cottage stood half-burned, its door torn clean off its hinges. The ground was torn up with signs of struggle—drag marks, scattered belongings, blood.
Kaia knelt in the dirt at the center of it all, hands shaking as she pressed them to a wounded farmer's chest. Her healing magic flickered weakly, uneven and panicked.
"I tried," she choked when she saw me. "I tried to stop them."
Lucien moved to help the injured man while Talon scanned the perimeter, eyes sharp. Raffyn paced, fire flaring dangerously close to the surface.
"They didn't take him," Kaia said, voice breaking. "They took her."
I felt it then—the hollow pull in my chest.
"Who?" I whispered.
Kaia swallowed hard. "A child. Six years old. They said… they told the Witchwolf Queen he's patient."
The words hit like a blade.
Raffyn roared, flames bursting outward in a violent arc. Trees blackened. The air shimmered with heat.
Lucien turned sharply. "Raffyn—control it!"
"I'll burn him alive," Raffyn snarled. "I swear it."
Silvara grabbed his arm, magic snapping like static. "That's exactly what Jarek wants."
I dropped to my knees in the dirt, hands clenched so tightly my nails cut into my palms. The magic inside me surged hard and fast, furious and aching to be unleashed.
He wasn't testing the ward anymore.
He wasn't probing fear.
He was punishing me for staying.
"This is my fault," I said hoarsely.
Lucien knelt in front of me instantly. "No."
"I drew his attention here," I said. "I made this worse."
Talon stepped closer, voice steady but heavy. "You made him desperate."
Silvara's gaze was grim. "And desperation makes him careless."
Kaia rose unsteadily to her feet, eyes blazing through her tears. "Then we take it to him."
The river behind us surged suddenly, water crashing against its banks as if answering the fury in my chest.
I stood slowly, heart hammering.
"No," I said. "We don't chase."
All eyes turned to me.
"We prepare," I continued. "He's done hiding behind fear. He wants a response."
I looked out at the ruined cottage, at Kaia's trembling hands, at the path where Nightfall had vanished into the dark.
"And he's going to get one."
Not tonight.
But soon.
And when he did—
Something would break.
I just didn't know yet if it would be him… or me.