Chapter 83 What Was Left Behind

• Amelia P.O.V.
• The forest doesn’t leave me when we do. The farther we move from it, the weaker the pull grows, but it never fully disappears. It lingers beneath the surface, quiet yet constant, like something that has settled into me rather than staying behind. I can still feel its rhythm if I focus, that steady pulse that no longer feels foreign. That’s what bothers me most, because it should feel wrong, and it doesn’t.
• Kieran stays close beside me, closer than usual, his attention shifting between me and everything around us. He hasn’t said a word since we left the forest, but I can feel the tension in him, the way he’s waiting for something to shift. He doesn’t trust this, and he shouldn’t. I don’t trust it either, but I can already feel that stepping away didn’t end anything. It only changed the distance between us and it.