The dream bled red. Eden stood in a field of withered grass, barefoot, the earth beneath her feet pulsing with heat like a dying heartbeat. The moon hung low in the sky, swollen and crimson. Something howled in the distance, not an animal, not human. Something in between. She turned. The trees lining the horizon bowed inward, as though leaning closer. Their branches moved, not in wind, but in intention. Shapes darted between the trunks like in large, feral, fast and yellow eyes. Clawed hands. Whispered voices that spoke her name like a curse. Eden… Eden Vale… She tried to run. The ground opened beneath her. And she fell— Gasping, she sat upright in bed, heart hammering so hard she could hear it in her ears. Sweat drenched her skin despite the cold. It wasn't just a dream but It felt like a memory. Someone else's memory but the whisper had been hers. She swung her legs off the bed and winced. The bandage on her ankle had loosened overnight, revealing an angry mark beneath it. A symbol, not a wound. Black and slightly raised, like a brand pressed into her skin. It is not ink and not human made. She reached to touch it and the moment her fingers brushed the edge, a burning shot through her arm like fire licking bone. Eden bit back a cry, breathing through her teeth. "What the hell is happening to me?" She was still in the room Kade had taken her to—his cabin, she assumed. The hearth was cold, the storm outside replaced by a bone-white fog that clung to the windows like frost. The postcard lay folded on the nightstand beside her, along with the diary and the strange iron key from the trapdoor beneath her aunt's house. Eden dressed quickly in the clothes she'd arrived in still damp but tolerable and hobbled out into the mist.
Silverthorn was a graveyard in the morning. Not a soul in the street. No sound but the caw of distant birds and the groan of the forest waking from its slumber. The air was thick with damp earth and something else like copper and burning pine. She found the town's library by instinct, drawn by the feeling that someone or something wanted her there. It was carved into stone, the building older than the rest of the town. Moss grew along its edges. A wrought-iron sign above the door read: SILVERTHORN ARCHIVES
She stepped inside. A bell above the door chimed softly. Dust motes hung in the air like fireflies. The room was empty, but not still. Shadows moved too quickly between shelves. Whispers drifted behind the stacks, vanishing as she turned her head. "You shouldn't be here alone." Eden spun. A girl stood at the far end of the room, barefoot, wearing a white dress stained with mud at the hem. Her eyes were too pale, almost silver. Her voice was low, too steady. Do I know you? Eden asked. The girl didn't answer. She tilted her head. "You're marked." Eden's hand moved protectively to her ankle. "What does that mean?" It means he saw you. And now he's waiting. "Who's he?" The girl didn't blink. "The one beneath the soil. The one who howls without a voice." Eden stepped back. "Okay. Nope. I'm done." The girl's gaze shifted behind her. "But he's not done with you." The bell over the door rang again and when Eden turned back, the girl was gone. Only the faint scent of ash remained.
Outside, Silverthorn had changed. People were emerging, quietly. Watching her. A man sweeping his porch paused mid-motion. A woman feeding crows at the fountain whispered something to her birds and didn't look away. She walked faster. At the edge of town, the forest waited. It had always waited. Eden stepped into the trees, following the path back to her aunt's house but every step felt heavier, as if the ground remembered her. but when she reached the cottage, she wasn't alone. Kade stood at the back, his arms bare, his eyes darker than usual. His scar looked deeper today. He didn't turn as she approached. "You found the mark," he said. How do you know? she queried. "I could feel it." His jaw worked. "I warned you not to dig." Eden crossed her arms. "My aunt vanished. Someone branded me with something out of a nightmare and a child ghost in the library told me a thing under the ground is waiting for me. I think I passed the point of subtle." He turned to face her. "There's a blood oath in this town. An old one. When someone is marked, it means they've been claimed." Claimed? she enthused "By the Hollow." Kade replied. She frowned. "What's the Hollow?" Kade didn't answer, instead he walked toward the edge of the trees. "You want answers? Then follow me. But once you see it, there's no pretending anymore."
The path wound deep through the woods until the trees thinned and the air turned cold unnaturally so. Frost formed in patterns on the leaves with symbols and warnings. Ahead, a circle of stones ringed an ancient tree with black bark and red leaves that didn't match the season. At its base were bones, small ones of animal and human but quite unclear. "This is the Bone Orchard," Kade said. "Every pack member is buried here. Every cursed bloodline. The tree remembers them." Eden stared at the tree. "Why bring me here?" Because your aunt wasn't the first Vale to disappear. He turned to her. "Your family's blood woke something and it's hunting through you now." She took a step back. "I didn't ask for this." No one does. Kade replied. She looked at him, really deep "but you… you're cursed too, aren't you?" Kade hesitated. Then he unbuttoned his shirt and turned his back to her. Dozens of scars carved into his skin like runes. Some healed. Some still raw. "I shift on the full moon but not like the others. My form isn't just wolf it's something worse. It is something that breaks." Eden's voice trembled. "And you save people while hiding it." He turned to face her. "I didn't save you. I marked you." She froze. "You what?" I didn't mean to but I bled when I pulled you from the wreck. You were open. My blood touched yours. That's enough. Eden stumbled back. "That's why you're seeing things. Why you dream what I dream. Why you feel the pull." The tree rustled. The air thickened. Something beneath the roots moved. "You have a choice," he said. "Leave now or bind yourself to this place forever."
Eden looked at the ground, the bones, the tree that bled red in a forest that should've been green. Then she looked at Kade and felt the mark on her skin burn, not with fear, but with knowing. "I'm not leaving," she said. "Not until I know what happened to Vanessa. Not until I understand why this is happening to me."
He exhaled once, low and tired. Then you need to prepare, he said. "Because the Blood Moon is coming." She turned to him. "What happens then?" He looked up at the sky as clouds moved to reveal the rising moon that is pale now, but swelling. "Everything we've buried gets hungry."