The forest did not warn them.
No breeze shifted.
No branch creaked.
No scent changed.
Yet in the next breath—
the earth ignited with murderous intent.
A sharp click sounded beneath Aurelia's boot—too soft for any normal ear, but Luca's head snapped toward her instantly.
"Don't move."
A faint blue circle, thin as a strand of hair, spread beneath her heel—
a precision-triggered pressure glyph, etched into the dirt itself, dormant until disturbed.
Before the others even processed it, Selena's palm lifted, fingers slicing the air with ice-threaded control. A thin frost filament curled under the glyph, freezing the mechanism before it could activate. Aurelia stepped back just as the magic circle cracked apart under the cold.
"That's one," Selena muttered.
But the forest had no intention of giving them breath.
From the branches above—
ting.
A tone of mana vibrating against metal.
