Petal's Pov

The forest swallowed us the second time with far less mercy. The night felt colder, sharper, as though the woods themselves knew the hunt had shifted from tracking to war. Aslaan moved in front, muscles coiled, senses stretched so thin I could almost hear the tension in him. Garcia and the three warriors fanned out behind us in a tight diamond formation.

We weren't walking into the unknown anymore.

We were walking into a trap we fully expected.

The deeper we went, the more the ...