(MASON'S POV)
I stayed glued to Blue's back, my fingers digging into the fabric of his shirt so hard until my fingers throbbed. My face pressed against him, breathing in the scent of his skin while panic crawled under mine. Every part of me wanted out—to sprint into the trees, keep running, never look back. Because these weren't just strangers standing in the forest staring at me.
They were elves.
Actual elves.
And the way they looked at me—sharp-eyed, curious, almost unsettled—made me feel like something that had wandered where it wasn't supposed to.
Blue went rigid in front of me. I felt it instantly. His back tightened beneath my hands, shoulders drawn hard as steel, like he was one wrong word away from turning the whole forest into a battlefield. The carefree version of him from earlier had disappeared completely. The reckless idiot who'd laughed against my mouth, called me "baby," and flown through the trees like gravity meant nothing was gone.
