The night settled over them like ink drying on a page, thick and deliberate. Amelia's pulse had finally steadied, but something new shimmered under her skin, an awareness that wasn't entirely hers. Every step made the forest react in ways she wished she didn't notice.
The ground seemed to hum.The air adjusted around her.And shadows shifted before she even reached them, parting like they knew her feet were coming.
Kade noticed everything.
His gaze flicked to her with every unnatural ripple, every rustle that moved away instead of toward them. His protectiveness had sharpened into something more focused, a silent vow wrapped in vigilance.
"You're doing that," he murmured as a crooked branch straightened when she passed beneath it.
Amelia kept walking. "I'm not doing anything."
"Exactly," he said. "That's the problem."
Even the moon above them seemed to reposition itself, as if trying to catch her face in a better angle. The attention felt both divine and suffocating.
"This is what the echo meant," Amelia whispered. "Something in me is waking up, and it's… reacting."
Kade didn't respond. He moved closer, angling his body like a shield. His warmth brushed her arm, steady but restless.
They reached the edge of a cliff that overlooked a valley swallowed in fog. Their path ended abruptly, but the world didn't let them stop.
The fog below stirred.
Then spiraled.
Then rose.
Not like mist, but like something pulling itself together.
Amelia flinched when the fog shaped into a figure. Not a monster. Not a spirit. Something far stranger.
It looked like a sentinel carved from moonlight, tall and faceless, its surface rippling as though woven from thin silver threads. It bent the light around itself as if light preferred obeying it.
Kade stepped forward, blade in hand. "Stay behind me."
But the sentinel lifted a hand, palm open toward Amelia—not Kade.
A whisper rippled through the air:
"She arrives."
Amelia's breath hitched. The same layered tone the echo used, but this voice felt older, deeper, carved from earth and sky.
"I don't know what you think I am," she said, forcing calm, "but I'm not your—"
The sentinel lowered its hand slightly, as if examining her.Then the ground trembled.
A pathway formed from the cliff's edge, stones levitating into place, shaping a floating bridge across the fog-filled chasm.
The sentinel bowed.
"The path recognizes you."
Kade grabbed Amelia's hand. "We are not crossing that."
The sentinel turned its head toward him without moving its body.Kade stiffened.
The air thickened with a subtle threat.
Amelia stepped forward. "Stop. Both of you."
The sentinel straightened again, waiting.
Kade's jaw tightened. "Amelia, we don't know where that leads."
"Then we'll find out." She squeezed his hand, gently but decisively. "Together."
Kade searched her face. Not for weakness. But for hesitation.
He found none.
After a long moment, he sheathed his blade and nodded, tension unraveling into reluctant acceptance. "If anything touches you, I'm cutting the sky open."
Amelia smiled faintly. "Good."
They stepped onto the floating path.
The stones glowed under her feet, responding to every touch with a soft pulse. The sentinel followed behind them silently, keeping its distance but never letting the gap grow too wide.
Halfway across, Amelia felt the echo's warmth stir inside her again. Not painful. Not frightening. Just aware.
Kade noticed her shift. "What is it?"
"Something's calling me," she whispered.
Kade's hand tightened. "Let it call louder. I want to hear it too."
The path curved gently, revealing the other side of the ravine.
A colossal structure rose from the mist—ancient, shimmering with symbols she didn't recognize, its entrance carved like an open mouth waiting for a prophecy to return.
The sentinel stepped forward, extending an arm toward it.
"The House of Origin waits."
Amelia swallowed, skin prickling.
Kade drew a sharp breath. "Origin of what?"
The sentinel's answer rippled through the stones beneath them:
"Of her."
Amelia's heart drummed once, violently.
Inside her, the echo whispered in the same moment:
It is time.