Chapter 85 What It Was Meant To Be

• Amelia P.O.V.
• Thane’s words don’t leave when the conversation ends. They settle in, heavier than anything the man from the temple said, because they don’t feel like theory or a warning. They feel like memory, like something that already happened and is waiting to happen again. That difference matters more than I want it to, because it means this isn’t just something we can figure out. It’s something we might already be too late to stop.
• I don’t linger in the clearing long after the others start moving again. The tension in the pack spreads quickly, subtle yet impossible to ignore, and I feel it brush against me as I step away. It isn’t directed at me, not exactly, but it reacts when I pass, as if something beneath the surface recognizes something it doesn’t understand. That alone is enough to keep me moving until the noise fades and I can think without all of it pressing in at once.