Miri's Pov
By the time the sun had clawed its way over the horizon, casting hues across the forest floor, I was already regretting agreeing to come.
Gone were the pine-heavy woods I had grown used to. In their place loomed something older and twisted. The forest that stretched before us was dense, yes, but not in the way wolf forests were. The trees weren't simply close together; they were bent—bowed inwards like they were leaning in to whisper secrets. Their branches tangled overhead like fingers locking into a ceiling that filtered sunlight into eerie, diffused strands. Mist slithered along the ground like something alive, thick enough to blur the path beneath our feet.
I slowed, studying the woods with wary eyes. "Well," I muttered. "This looks welcoming."
"Correction," Riven said, pretending to shiver. "This looks like the kind of place where people come for spiritual enlightenment and end up as haunted dolls in someone's curse closet."
