Chapter 14. Beneath the Skin

The day was slipping sideways into the hush of late afternoon when Kaelen dismissed the last of his men. They melted into the forest like wolves often did—silent, efficient, half-shadow already. Mike lingered a little longer, weariness dragging at his frame as he scrubbed a hand over his jaw and offered Kaelen a shrug that said everything words couldn’t.

Another day. Another fruitless search. No answers.

The missing woman had left no tracks. Her cabin was intact, undisturbed, and her boots still by the door. It was as if the sea had simply reached up and swallowed her.

‘Or something else swallowed her,’ came Sylas’s low, unwelcome murmur from the darker recess of Kaelen’s mind.

Kaelen didn’t answer. He wasn’t in the mood for Sylas’s paranoia. Or his games.

“Enough,” he growled softly to no one, his voice barely louder than the wind threading through the trees.

The path back to Martha’s was familiar by now. Worn, shaded by branches that caug