The night is too still.
Too dark.
Too quiet.
May stands at the edge of the forest clearing, her breath a thin cloud in the cold air. The world around her feels wrong—like the trees are holding their breath, like the shadows are leaning in to listen.
Nathel is beside her.
Or… the version of him that remains.
His eyes are darker tonight, the silver threaded with something deeper, something older. The mark on his collarbone pulses faintly like a heartbeat that isn't his.
"May," he says quietly, "if I change… you run."
She ignores him, fingers closing around his wrist.
"I'm not leaving you."
His jaw tightens—but his shoulders relax, just a little.
Her touch anchors him. It always has.
But tonight… something else is awake.
Something that hates her for it.
A low tremor rolls under the earth.
Nathel's head lifts sharply.
A shudder runs down his spine.
"It's stirring," he whispers.
May's pulse stutters. "The thing that forced the bond to sleep?"
His eyes flick to hers.
"No."
A pause.
"Something worse."
Before she can speak, the air tears.
A soundless crack—like the world splitting open for a breath.
A figure steps out.
Not fully formed.
Not fully human.
A silhouette drenched in shifting smoke, edges unraveling and reforming with every movement.
Its presence steals the warmth from the clearing.
May's knees weaken.
Nathel's hand clamps around hers.
"It found me," he murmurs. "After all this time."
The figure's voice slithers through the air, soft as rot, deep as ancient stone.
"You woke him, little tether."
May can't breathe.
The smoke-figure turns its head toward her—slowly, curiously.
"How did you survive the sealing?"
Nathel steps in front of her instantly.
"Leave her out of this."
The creature laughs—no sound, only vibration.
"You don't speak for me anymore, Nathel."
The ground cracks.
Nathel stiffens, pain flickering across his face.
The mark on his collarbone burns bright—too bright—lighting through his skin like fire veins.
May grabs his shoulders. "Nathel—what's happening—?!"
He doesn't answer.
He can't.
He's shaking too hard.
The creature lifts a hand made of swirling blackness.
"It is time to take back what you stole."
May's scream tears from her throat—
"NO!"
A force slams into her chest—cold, suffocating, crushing.
She hits the ground hard, vision spinning.
Nathel roars—an inhuman, ancient sound that doesn't belong to this world.
He lunges at the creature—
But his body convulses mid-air, frozen in place like invisible chains hold him.
The creature's face tilts.
"He is unraveling."
May fights up to her elbows, lungs burning.
"STAY AWAY FROM HIM!"
The creature glides toward her.
"Oh, tether… you have no idea what you've bound yourself to."
Nathel's voice shatters through the night—
"May… run…"
She doesn't.
She rises.
Stumbling.
Shaking.
Terrified.
But she rises.
Because he's fading—
And she won't lose him.
Not to this thing.
Not again.
The creature slowly extends its hand toward her chest, fingers swirling like smoke claws.
"Come, little tether. Let me see what made the bond awaken—"
A voice slices through the clearing.
"Touch her and you cease to exist."
Zara steps out from the shadows—hood thrown back, eyes glowing with a symbol May has never seen before.
The creature recoils.
Nathel collapses to his knees, gasping.
May's heart stops.
"Zara?" she breathes.
Zara's stare stays locked on the creature.
"Step away from them."
The symbol in her eyes burns brighter—
And the forest begins to tremble.