*~Hazel's POV~*
The place felt wrong the moment we stepped into it.
Not wrong in the obvious way, not loud or screaming danger, but wrong like a held breath. Like the land itself was waiting. We stood at the edge of a clearing swallowed by shadows, the building ahead half-hidden by dead trees and jagged stone. No banners. No guards at the gate. Just silence so heavy it pressed against my chest.
"She's here," I said quietly.
I didn't need to explain. They both felt it too.
Aurora's presence hummed beneath my skin, a low, aching pull that came from somewhere deep in my blood. Crescent blood. Witch blood. The kind that recognized its own even through layers of darkness and distance.
Cayden shifted beside me, rolling his shoulders, the wolf under his skin restless. "Yeah," he muttered. "I feel it. Like… she's close, but blocked."
