Falling felt like flying — until it didn't.
The air tore at my face, my hair whipping wild around me. The roar of the river rose like thunder. For one suspended heartbeat, I saw everything — the burning fortress behind, the forest trembling, the silver glint of dawn on the horizon.
And then the water swallowed me whole.
Cold. Crushing. Alive.
The current seized me, dragging me down, spinning me end over end. My lungs burned. I fought for the surface, my arms heavy, my body screaming.
Where was he?
"Liam!" I tried to shout, but only water filled my throat.
A shape flickered through the dark — pale, weightless — and my heart leapt. I kicked toward it, hands reaching. For an instant, I brushed skin.
Then the current wrenched him away.
The river split around a jagged rock wall, tearing us apart.
I screamed into the water, bubbles ripping from my mouth. My chest convulsed. The world blurred into black and blue.
When I surfaced at last, gasping, I saw nothing but mist and foam.
No Liam.
Only the river's endless snarl.
I drifted, weak, my limbs numb. The current carried me until it slammed me against the shore. I clawed at the mud, dragging myself onto the rocks.
For a long time, I just lay there, coughing, shaking, sobbing without sound.
The sky above was a bruised gray, the moon fading. My blood mixed with the river's foam, staining it red.
He was gone. Again.
The bond pulsed faintly — once, twice — then dimmed. Not broken. Not gone. Just distant. Too distant.
I pressed a trembling hand to my chest, feeling the hollow where he should've been. "No," I whispered. "Don't leave me."
The shadows stirred weakly beneath my skin, mirroring my grief. They coiled around my fingers like vines, then slithered back, murmuring words I didn't understand.
One of them sounded like goodbye.
I screamed until my voice broke.
The sound vanished into the trees, devoured by distance.
When silence returned, I was alone.
Truly alone.
The forest stretched endlessly on both sides. The cliffs rose behind me, too steep to climb. There was nowhere to go — and yet, every part of me burned to move.
I stood, shaking. Every wound throbbed. My reflection in the river caught my eye — pale, bloodstained, eyes flickering with faint black veins.
Selene's prophecy replayed in my head:
When the moon turns red, he will find you. And your mercy will end the world.
"No," I whispered. "You're wrong."
The words tasted like iron.
But deep down, I wasn't sure if I believed myself anymore.
The river roared, mocking me. The shadows whispered: He rises.
And somewhere beyond the mountains, I felt it — faint but certain. His hunger awakening.
I looked toward the horizon, where the water disappeared into fog.
"Then I'll find you first," I said.
I stepped into the forest — bloody, half-broken, heart splintered — and began to walk.
Every tree seemed to lean closer as I passed, their shadows shifting. The whisper followed me wherever I went: He rises. He rises. He rises.
The forest didn't end. The path didn't matter.
Only one thing did.
Liam.
And if the world wanted to make him a monster — I would become worse to save him.
Even if it meant burning the world myself.