By the time Aria staggered back into the village, dawn had broken pale and cold. Smoke curled from the chimneys, but it did nothing to chase away the weight of what had just happened in the forest.
They had seen.
The villagers crowded in the muddy square, murmuring in uneasy clusters. Eyes flicked to her, then away. Mothers pulled their children closer, men gripped tools as if they were weapons. The air smelled not of breakfast fires, but of fear.
An old woman near the well pointed a crooked finger."She carried the light," the woman whispered, loud enough for all to hear. "I saw it burning in her hands. Just like"
"just like her brother," another man spat, finishing the thought none of them dared speak aloud.
The crowd stirred uneasily.
Aria's chest tightened. Every face was a reminder: neighbors she'd grown up with, men who had fixed her mother's roof, women who had stitched her cloaks. Their gazes now cut like knives.
"She'll bring ruin," someone muttered.
"She's cursed."
"No," another voice rang out shaky but defiant. Tomas, the blacksmith's son, stepped forward. His dark hair plastered wet against his face, hammer still in his hand. "She fought him. You saw it. She protected us."
A hush fell.
Tomas's father pulled him back by the shoulder, scowling, but the words were already out.
Aria wanted to speak, to defend herself, to beg them to understand. But the oak's voice still whispered in her veins, too heavy, too strange. And she could still feel her brother's shadow clinging to her skin.
Instead, she turned and walked away. The crowd parted, reluctant, as though afraid she might burn them with her touch.
The road out of the village wound toward the hills. Aria's boots sank into the mud, her cloak heavy with rain. Every step carried her farther from the only home she had ever known.
But she wasn't alone.
At the forest's edge, the oak's hollow pulsed faintly, as though waiting. And deep inside, something stirred the shapes she had glimpsed before her brother vanished. They were moving closer, calling to her.
She paused, heart hammering. The villagers' whispers still clung to her ears. Cursed. Dangerous.
But if the oak truly held answers… then she had no choice but to follow.
She stepped into the trees.
And the forest closed around her like the jaws of a beast.