Some warnings come as shouts.
Others… arrive in silence, wrapped in black feathers.
⸻
Kaizlan remained in the shadows, eyes fixed on the house where his target slept.
The cold was settling deeper into his bones, but it wasn't the chill that made his skin tighten.
Something was wrong.
The wind shifted—bringing with it the faint rustle of wings.
From the darkness of the treeline, a crow landed on the broken garden fence. Its feathers weren't the deep, glossy black of an ordinary bird. They were pale, ash-gray, like they had been burned and never recovered.
It stared at him.
Unblinking.
Judging.
Tied to its leg was a small, rolled piece of parchment.
Before Kaizlan could move, the crow beat its wings once, hard. The parchment tore loose, snatched by the wind and carried toward the forest.
Kaizlan's instincts screamed: ignore it, finish the job.
But another part of him—the part that had survived long enough to know when to listen—told him this was no coincidence.
He moved.
Silent as breath, swift as a shadow, he slipped into the treeline after the drifting scrap of paper.
⸻
The forest swallowed sound.
Every step felt louder than it should have, every heartbeat sharper.
Somewhere ahead, the parchment had landed, caught on the edge of a root. But beside it… footprints.
Not one set—several.
Boots, heavy and recent.
Too recent.
He crouched, brushing his fingers over the impressions in the soil. The pattern was unfamiliar, but the precision was military. Whoever they were, they weren't wandering drunks from the village.
The trail led deeper into the forest, away from the house. Away from his target.
Kaizlan's mind split in two: duty or curiosity.
The parchment was still within reach, the prints still fresh.
Then—movement.
A flicker of shadow between the trees, tall, deliberate.
Kaizlan froze.
The figure turned slightly, just enough for the moonlight to catch the curve of their jaw.
Recognition slammed into him like a blade to the ribs.
He knew that face.
From a life he had buried.
⸻
And before he could even breathe the name, the figure vanished into the dark.