Chapter 16

• The damp earth clung to Kael’s boots as he moved through the shadowed undergrowth, the familiar scent of pine needles and damp loam a comforting counterpoint to the gnawing unease that had settled over him. Beside him, Lyra’s scouts fanned out, their movements fluid and silent, their senses attuned to the slightest disturbance in the ancient forest. The Moonwood was their sanctuary, their ancestral home, and the recent reports of increased Kindred activity along the southern border had cast a long, suffocating shadow over its peace.
• “Anything, Lyra?” Kael’s voice was a low murmur, barely disturbing the hushed stillness of the pre-dawn air.
• Lyra, a lithe warrior whose senses were as sharp as her claws, paused, tilting her head. Her amber eyes scanned the dense thicket ahead. “A faint disturbance, Kael. A shift in the usual energy signatures. Nothing definitive, but… wrong. Like a discordant note in a familiar melody.”