"I thought I buried our love beneath silence and loyalty, but it bloomed in the shadow, waiting for the moment I'd remember who I was with you."
The deeper we travelled into Drevina, the more the forest changed. The mist thickened around us, curling in silvery tendrils like breath from an unseen god. The trees bent inward, their canopies twisting into shapes that whispered secrets only the oldest magic could understand. The soil under our boots grew soft and warm, humming faintly with ancient power, raw, untouched, and wild.
Oberon walked slightly ahead, carrying Elle in his arms. The boy had fallen asleep again, lulled by the pulse of the wards I whispered around us. It was strange, trusting someone else to hold him. Stranger still to trust that someone to be Oberon. But something had shifted between us since last night. But alignment, like two blades forged separately, is now finally facing the same enemy.
"He's stirring," Oberon said softly without looking back.
