The forest wasn't empty.

Lyla felt it before she saw it.

Something old.

Something unseen.

Watching.

Waiting.

The whisper that had curled through the trees wasn’t the wind.

It was something else.

And it had spoken to her.

"This is just the beginning, Guardian."

Her blood ran cold.

Because whatever it was

It knew who she was.

Eli stepped beside her.

"You heard it too," he murmured.

Not a question.

A fact.

Dani’s hands hovered over her daggers. "What ...