Chapter 46. In the Bone Forest

The battered wolves moved before dawn, slipping into the deep woods under cover of mist.

Selene led them, each step deliberate, each breath shallow against the burning poison threading through her veins. Alaric flanked her, close enough that their shoulders brushed. Neither spoke. Words would cost too much strength now.

The Bone Forest loomed ahead—an ancient, cursed place where even the Council’s bravest warriors hesitated to tread. The trees here grew thin and pale, their bark bleached to bone-white by centuries of strange magic. Skeletons of beasts—some monstrous, some familiar—hung from the branches, strung up by the wind or left as offerings by forgotten hands.

The wolves hesitated at the forest’s edge.

Selene turned, her voice raw but unyielding.

"They won't follow us here," she said. "Not easily."