AYLA – POV
My boots sank into soaked earth mixed with old blood and ash—that bitter trace from Cassia's undoing. The cavern's ceilings arched low, ancient stone carved by time and secrets. Torchlight cast long fingers across inscriptions on the walls—runes of binding, protection, and something I couldn't yet read.
Three days without real sleep. No shift. My wolf camped inside me, silent and wary. Every breath felt like pulling iron through my lungs. We moved the wounded further in, deeper into the echoing bowels of these ridges.
Hear me.
The urging wasn't mine.
It was hers—The First Luna.
Deep inside my ribs, I felt her stirring. I pressed my palm to the stone wall. Cold as grief. Wind, distant but constant, pressed through cracks above like a sigh—a warning.
Ayla's Thoughts
This is what we fight for. Something bigger than burdens.
