Chapter 22

• The scent of Tallia, though faint, was a beacon. It was a delicate thread, woven through the ancient tapestry of the Moonwood, leading Kael and his elite trackers deeper into a realm where the familiar laws of nature seemed to bend and warp. The forest floor, usually soft with fallen leaves and moss, grew increasingly erratic, transitioning from damp soil to jagged, exposed roots that threatened to trip the unwary. Sunlight, when it managed to pierce the dense canopy, did so in fractured, spectral beams, illuminating swirling motes of dust that danced with an unnatural luminescence. Kael’s wolf, usually attuned to the subtle shifts of the wind and the rustle of prey, felt an unease settling deep within its bones. This was no ordinary hunt; this was a deliberate descent into the heart of a forgotten, shadowed world.
• “The trail is being deliberately obscured,” Lyra’s younger brother, Finn, growled, his voice strained. He was one of Kael’s most skilled trackers, his nose exceptionally keen, capable of discerning the most minute variations in scent. He nudged a patch of ground with his snout, the dark earth disturbed in a way that suggested it had been tampered with, dusted with something that mimicked the natural decay of the forest. “They’re not just running; they’re erasing their passage.”
• Kael nodded, his golden eyes narrowed, scanning the surroundings with an almost predatory intensity. He could feel it too – a subtle pressure in the air, a humming vibration that spoke of energies not of this world. The vampires were not merely hunters; they were sorcerers, manipulators of the very essence of their surroundings. Their presence left an indelible stain, a corruption of the natural order, and the trail of his mate was laced with these subtle enchantments, designed to confuse and dishearten. “They fear our persistence, Finn. They know we will not stop. This is their way of slowing us, of sowing doubt.”