The forest was too quiet.
Kyle knew it the moment he stepped outside the cabin at dawn. No wind, no rustle of leaves, no distant calls of birds—just the kind of silence that pressed against the skin and made the air feel heavier.
Felix followed him out, yawning but armed. "You're up early. Planning to brood before breakfast?"
Kyle didn't look at him. "Something's wrong."
Felix shrugged, scanning the treeline. "Something's always wrong. That's our life now."
But Kyle's gut said otherwise. This wasn't the usual kind of wrong. This was the stillness before something moved.
Gia's Unease
Back inside, Gia was pacing. Her fingers brushed the air occasionally, little ripples forming as if she were testing her portals without fully opening them.
"Kyle," she said the moment she saw him, "did you hear it?"
"Hear what?"
"The whispering," she said, her voice low. "Last night. It was faint, but it wasn't in my head—it was around me."
Felix frowned, glancing between them. "You two are hearing voices now? Great. That's not concerning at all."
Kyle's eyes darkened. "It's the shadow. It's tracking us through her."
Gia's expression froze. "You think it's after me now?"
Kyle hesitated. "I know it is."
Tension Between Allies
The conversation turned sharp fast.
"We can't keep running if it's just going to follow us through her," Felix said, pacing. "We need to go on the offensive."
"That's suicide," Kyle snapped.
"It's survival," Felix shot back, stepping closer. "You think hiding in cabins and clock towers is going to stop what's coming? We barely survived the Hunter—this next thing is bigger. Stronger. And it knows us now."
Kyle's jaw tightened. "And you think charging straight into its arms is a better plan?"
Felix didn't answer right away. His gaze slid toward Gia, and there was something in his expression Kyle couldn't ignore—protective, almost desperate.
Kyle's chest tightened in a way he didn't like.
The First Sign of the Final Enemy
They didn't get a chance to keep arguing.
The light outside dimmed abruptly, though it was still morning. Gia's head snapped toward the boarded windows. "Something's here."
Felix was already moving toward the door when the boards began to frost over. Not just from cold—the ice was black, like frozen ink, spreading in jagged veins across the wood.
Kyle's pulse jumped.
"That's not the shadow," he said.
A voice—low, calm, and ancient—slipped through the walls.
"Hunter was just a leash. Now the hound is dead… and I've come for the wolves."
Gia staggered back, her portals flaring instinctively, shimmering with unstable light.
Felix drew his weapon, glancing at Kyle. "I'm guessing that's the bigger problem you've been feeling?"
Kyle's blood felt hot in his veins. "Yeah. And if we're not careful, we're not making it to tonight."
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