The first stone shattered near Kara's foot and she jumped back instantly. "That wasn't here five seconds ago."
Everyone froze as the clearing fell quiet, too quiet for something to fall on its own. Calder's hand lifted slowly. "No one moves."
Elena felt the warmth in her chest twitch faintly, not flaring, not surging, just reacting. Rowan shifted closer to her without thinking, his body angling protectively between her and the treeline. Another stone rolled across the ground.
From the treeline, a voice came quietly, almost politely. "Relax. If we wanted you dead, you'd already be bleeding."
Kara's fists tightened. "I really hate polite villains."
A shadow stepped between the trees, not a general, not a monster, just a man in dark gear with calm eyes. Calder's voice dropped. "Scout."
The man smiled faintly. "Former scout. Now a messenger."
Selene whispered, "For who?"
The man's gaze slid slowly to Elena and lingered there just a heartbeat too long. "For the ones who hunt awakenings."
Rowan felt Elena's fingers tighten around his sleeve as Calder stepped forward. "You shouldn't have tracked us."
The man shrugged lightly. "You shouldn't have made so much noise breaking a city with raw spiritual pressure."
Kara scoffed. "That wasn't her fault."
"No," the man agreed. "That's why she's worth collecting."
The warmth in Elena's chest jolted sharply. Rowan moved fully in front of her now. "Back off."
The man tilted his head. "You're brave for someone who has no aura at all."
Calder's presence spiked like a silent storm. "You've delivered your message. Leave."
The scout studied him for a long second, then stepped backward, hands raised. "Very well. The hunt begins at dawn." And then he vanished into the trees like he had never been there.
Silence followed.
Kara released a long breath. "I officially vote we stop being interesting."
Selene adjusted her cracked glasses. "That may no longer be statistically possible."
Elena's pulse thundered. Rowan turned to her immediately. "Are you okay?"
She nodded once, but her fingers were trembling.
Calder looked at all of them. "That's the last warning you'll get. From now on, every step you take will be counted."
Kara forced a grin. "Great. No pressure."
But the pressure was already there.
They moved camp immediately, not in panic but with precision. Calder guided them through a narrower forest path, choosing routes that broke line of sight and aura tracking. Elena stumbled once when her chest tightened suddenly and Rowan caught her without hesitating.
"I'm fine," she whispered.
"I know," he replied quietly. "Still holding you."
She didn't pull away.
They stopped near an old broken stone bridge deep within the forest, shielded by collapsed rock and overgrowth. It wasn't safe, but it was safer. Rain began to fall lightly just as they settled.
Kara muttered, "Nice timing."
Selene took shelter beneath the bridge arch with her pack. "Humidity will distort aura tracking slightly."
Calder nodded. "It buys us time."
Elena sat on a flat stone near the edge, staring into the rain as her hands slowly clenched and unclenched without her realizing it. Rowan sat beside her.
"You're shaking again," he said softly.
"They're coming for me," she whispered. "Not for all of us. Just me."
He turned to face her fully. "They come for you, they come for all of us. That's how this works now."
She swallowed. "I never wanted this."
"I know."
She looked at him. "You could still leave. Selene too. Kara too."
His gaze hardened slightly. "Say that again and I will personally drag you into the rain."
Despite everything, she let out a small, broken laugh. "You'd really do that?"
"Yes," he said calmly. "And then I'd walk back beside you."
Her breath hitched and she looked away quickly before he could see the tears forming.
The forced rest that followed was tense but quiet. Kara shadow-boxed under the bridge, controlled this time, each punch slower than the last training session but cleaner. Selene spoke quietly with Calder about tracking patterns and pursuit behavior.
Elena remained still. Too still. Rowan noticed and moved closer again.
"You're retreating into your head."
She didn't answer. He waited.
"It keeps replaying," she said faintly. "The cellar. The heat. My parents falling."
His jaw tightened.
"I was right there," she continued. "And I did nothing."
Rowan's voice was steady but firm. "You did everything you could with what you had."
"That doesn't change what happened."
He hesitated, then gently placed his hand over her clenched one. "You're allowed to grieve and still survive."
She looked at him through blurred vision. "How are you always like this?"
"Like what?"
"Strong when you're not supposed to be."
He gave a faint smile. "Someone has to be normal when the world stops making sense."
She finally broke. Tears slid down her cheeks, silent and hot. She didn't hide them this time. Rowan drew her into his chest slowly, carefully, like she might shatter if he moved too fast. She cried into his jacket.
He didn't say anything.
He didn't need to.
That night, they did not use fire. Darkness wrapped the bridge in quiet shadows and soft rain. Calder took first watch. Selene slept light, waking at every sound. Kara slept poorly, muttering once in her dreams.
Elena could not sleep at all. The warmth in her chest pulsed slow and anxious. Rowan sat beside her again.
"You don't have to talk," he whispered.
"I don't want to be alone with it."
"Then you won't be."
Their hands found each other without thinking. This time, neither of them pretended it was accidental.
"I thought high school would be where everything important happened," Elena whispered.
Rowan let out a soft breath. "Turns out life doesn't wait for graduation."
She smiled weakly. "We were supposed to argue about exams. About uniforms. About stupid things."
"We still can," he said. "We're just arguing about survival now too."
She laughed softly through a shaky breath, then leaned forward just a little. Her forehead rested against his shoulder. He froze for half a second, then tilted slightly so she fit better against him. They stayed like that for a long time, not quite a confession and not quite a promise, just two people admitting without words that they didn't want to face the darkness separately.
Morning came without violence, and that alone felt strange. Training resumed more slowly now with controlled movement, balance, and control integrated into each exercise instead of raw force.
Elena's progress was uneven. Sometimes the warmth responded perfectly. Sometimes it trembled dangerously. Each failure left her shaken. Each success left her exhausted. Rowan watched everything.
During one exercise, Elena's control faltered and a ripple of pressure slipped outward. It wasn't violent, but it was enough to make Kara stumble.
Kara steadied herself quickly. "Okay. Not fun. But not deadly. Improvement."
Elena looked stricken. "I'm sorry."
Rowan stepped in calmly. "You recovered it fast."
Calder observed quietly. "Yes. Faster than yesterday."
Elena exhaled shakily. Selene nodded faintly.
"Your recovery time decreased by approximately forty percent."
Kara blinked. "You measured that?"
"Mentally," Selene replied.
Elena gave a small, tired smile.
Later, as Rowan helped Elena practice controlled breathing near the river's edge again, she suddenly asked, "What would you have done if I had died that night?"
He went still. "That's not fair."
"I need to know."
He didn't look at her at first. "I don't know. I think I would've followed you into the fire anyway."
Her chest tightened. "That's not romantic. That's terrifying."
He finally met her eyes. "Love is usually both."
Her heart skipped. "Did you just—"
"Yes," he said softly. "I did."
The space between them dissolved into something fragile and electric for a suspended moment where the world felt normal again.
Then Kara yelled from across the clearing, "I SWEAR IF YOU TWO KISS WITHOUT TELLING ME I'LL NEVER FORGIVE YOU."
The moment shattered. Elena choked on
embarrassment. Rowan nearly fell backward.
Selene's voice followed distantly. "I advised against public embarrassment this morning. My calculations remain accurate."
Elena buried her face in her hands. "I hate all of you."
"You love us," Kara replied cheerfully.
That evening, Calder made an announcement. "Tomorrow, you'll be tested."
Silence fell immediately. Kara straightened. Selene went alert. Rowan's hand closed subtly around Elena's.
"Not in battle," Calder added. "In fear."
Elena whispered, "What does that mean?"
He looked at her steadily. "It means tomorrow you will learn how your heart behaves when your power is no longer the only thing under threat."
The warmth inside Elena shifted uneasily. Rowan squeezed her hand gently.
"Whatever it is, we face it together."
She nodded slowly.
Far beyond the forest, unseen eyes shifted. The hunt was moving. And the quiet between Elena and Rowan had begun to take a shape that even fear could no longer erase.
The forest did not sleep.
Long after the others settled into uneasy rest, Elena lay awake beneath the quiet cover of twisted branches and cold stone. Rowan's hand still rested around hers, warm and steady, but the warmth inside her chest would not settle. It pulsed faintly in slow, uneven beats, like it was listening for something she could not hear.
She stared up at the fractured shapes of leaves above them and tried to slow her breathing the way Calder had taught her earlier. In through the nose. Out through the mouth. Slow. Steady. The pulse weakened slightly, but it did not disappear.
Somewhere in the distance, a bird cried out once and then went silent.
Elena felt it immediately.
Not sound. Not motion. Pressure.
Her fingers tightened around Rowan's before she even realized she was doing it. He stirred at once.
"Elena?" he murmured.
She swallowed. "Something's wrong."
Rowan sat up slowly without letting go of her hand. His eyes swept the dark forest around them. Everything looked the same. Too much the same.
Across the small clearing, Kara shifted in her sleep, rolling onto her side, while Selene's breathing remained slow and even. Calder still stood at the edge of their camp, motionless as a shadow among shadows.
The pressure grew worse.
It wasn't an attack. It wasn't force. It was the uncomfortable awareness of being noticed.
Elena's chest tightened. "It feels like… like when the scout was here. But softer. Farther away."
Rowan's jaw set hard. "Can Calder feel it?"
Calder didn't turn, but his voice reached them quietly through the dark. "Yes."
Rowan exhaled sharply. "So they're close."
"Not close enough," Calder replied. "Yet."
Elena's pulse thundered. "Then why does it feel like they're watching me?"
"Because you are no longer invisible," Calder said. "Once a core awakens, the world does not look away again."
That did not comfort her.
Rowan's thumb brushed slowly over the back of her hand, grounding her just enough to keep the warmth inside her chest from surging. "You're not alone in this anymore," he whispered.
She nodded, though fear still sat heavy in her throat. "I know. That's what scares me too."
He let out a soft, humorless breath. "You don't have to be brave right now. Just stay."
She stayed.
Minutes passed in silence, then longer stretches where nothing seemed to move. Little by little, the strange pressure in the air thinned and faded until Elena could no longer feel it at all.
Only then did her body finally allow itself to tremble.
Rowan pulled her closer without a word, her forehead resting against his shoulder again as she tried to steady herself. His heartbeat was calm against her ear, steady and real in a world that no longer felt either of those things.
"I don't think I'll ever get used to this," she whispered.
"To the fear?" he asked.
"To being important."
He hesitated. "You were always important. The world just caught up late."
She let out a weak sound that might have been a laugh and might have been a sob.
Eventually the night settled again into uneasy stillness, but sleep did not come easily this time.
Not for her.
Not for any of them.
At the far edge of the forest, beyond where even Calder's senses could reach, shadows moved.
Three figures stood half-hidden among broken trees and misted ground, their auras dampened to near nothing. One of them knelt, fingers pressed against the earth, eyes closed.
"The mark is stable," he said quietly. "No rupture. No collapse. She's adapting quickly."
A second voice answered, smooth and cold. "Expected. A core born from divine interference rarely shatters at first contact."
The third figure remained silent, gaze fixed in the direction of the broken stone bridge.
"She is not alone," the first reported. "Calder is with her. And three others."
At the name, the second figure's lips curved faintly. "Then the old dog still lives."
"And fights," the first replied.
"Good," the second said calmly. "It will make the capture more satisfying."
The third finally spoke, voice low and unreadable. "We observe for now. No engagement before the fear trial."
A pause followed.
"Let the girl believe she has rest tonight," the second added. "Hope makes the break cleaner."
The mist thickened.
The shadows withdrew without sound.
Back beneath the broken bridge, Elena finally drifted into shallow, restless sleep with Rowan's hand still holding hers. Her dreams were not of fire this time, but of running through endless trees while unseen eyes watched her from everywhere at once.
When the first pale light of morning touched the forest, she woke with a start.
Calder was already standing at the center of the clearing.
Waiting.
Today was the test.
And fear would no longer be distant.