Chapter Seven: Into the Woods
The buses rattled down the gravel path, the forest looming like a wall of shadows. Students pressed against the windows, buzzing with nerves and bravado.
At the back, Alex, Anna, and Raymond huddled together.
"This is insane," Raymond muttered, bouncing his knee. "Exams already nearly killed me. Now they're tossing us into that forest?"
Anna's mouth curved faintly. "Claire said the same thing yesterday. Remember?"
Alex smirked. "Yeah. 'Kids barely survive exams, now they want to survive the forest.'"
Raymond groaned. "She was joking, right? …Right?"
Their laughter carried them to the drop-off, but it faltered when the buses hissed to a stop.
The forest towered above them, vast, ancient, swallowing light whole.
Teachers passed out gear—sturdy boots, weatherproof jackets, packs with rations and tools. Everything practical, everything meant to last.
Anna tugged her jacket snug, eyes fixed on the tree line. Something inside her stirred, low and steady.
The gates creaked open.
Claire leaned against the post, arms crossed, smirk sharp. "Try not to get eaten before sunset."
Raymond almost tripped over his own bag.
Then they stepped across the threshold.
Alex hissed, hand flying to her neck. The serpent-mark burned like fire under her skin, alive, as if the forest itself had called it awake.
Beside her, Anna stiffened. Her hand pressed against her chest, over the faint outline of the wolf mark. It pulsed—not in pain, but in recognition. A heartbeat echoing her own, primal and ancient, as though the soul-wolf itself stirred awake in the soil of its origin.
Raymond saw the tension in both of them. "Tell me I'm not the only one freaking out here."
Neither answered.
The gates clanged shut behind them.
And in the shadows deeper still, Gabriel's voice carried like a whisper through the trees.
"Finally."
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