Grace POV

Dawn breaks as we reach the border of the hidden homeland, and the sight stops me in my tracks. Before us stretches a forest unlike any I've ever seen—ancient trees wrapped in mist that moves like living things. The air carries a scent I can't identify, something between flowers and incense, sweet but with underlying sharpness.

And beneath it all, thrumming through ground and air, is energy. Old energy. The kind that speaks of centuries of accumulated ...