ELIJAH POV.
Elijah hadn't slept.
The party had ended hours ago, but the sound of it still echoed in his head — the bass, the laughter, Rina's hesitant smile when he told her she looked amazing.
He kept replaying that moment, the way she'd said she might actually come out more often.
Then she vanished.
Her phone went straight to voicemail, her dorm was empty, and campus security brushed him off with a shrug. "Freshmen go off campus all the time, kid."
Yeah. Maybe. But not Rina.
He kicked a rock across the deserted quad, trying not to think about the hundred things that could've happened. He'd texted Melissa too — nothing. Her silence made the panic crawl up his throat.
The night air was too still.
No breeze. No hum of traffic from the main road. Just… quiet.
Then, faintly, something rippled through the air — a vibration he could feel in his bones. It wasn't sound. It was deeper than that, like thunder rolling from underground.
He froze. "What the hell—"
A glow flickered across the sky, gold and black, twisting together above the soccer field. For half a second, it looked like a storm — then it pulsed outward, and every light on campus went out.
Elijah's breath caught. "Rina."
He didn't think — just ran.
By the time he reached the field, smoke hung low over the ground. The grass was scorched in strange, perfect circles. The air smelled like ozone and rain.
No Rina. No Niklaus. Just silence.
But as he stepped onto the field, his phone buzzed in his pocket — one new text from an unknown number.
Unknown: You shouldn't have come here.
He spun around. "Who's there?"
No answer. Just the wind, finally stirring again.
The message came again.
Unknown: She's not safe with him.
Elijah's pulse jumped. "What do you mean? Who are you?"
Another ping.
Unknown: Find the forest. Before he does.
The phone screen flickered — and then, right before it went dark, a map appeared. The woods beyond the athletic fields, marked with a single name burned into the screen in faint gold letters:
Forest of Echoes.
Elijah stared at it, the hum in his bones growing louder.
He didn't know what was going on — but if Rina was out there, he was going after her.
He shoved the phone in his pocket and started toward the tree line, unaware of the shadow moving behind him — watching, following.