Chapter 33. Marked

They burst from the sanctuary like hunted creatures breaking from a spellbound dream, the stone circle falling away behind them as shadows surged at their backs, coiling like smoke through the trees. The sorceress’s voice, threaded with power, rang out one final time—not shouted, but resonant, a low toll that echoed through bark and bone alike. “Go,” she commanded. “Don’t look back.”

Branches whipped past them as they ran. Noah vaulted over a low root, sprinting ahead, his boots pounding against the earth. He reached the vehicle first, flung open the passenger-side door, and threw himself into the driver’s seat in a single practiced motion. Kaelen didn’t break stride. He slid into the back seat, Mira still burning in his arms, her body curled against him like a live coal pressed to flesh.

Inside the car, the air was stifling with the scent of her—fever-bright, feral, laced with the raw edges of magic and blood. Kaelen held her tighter, trading the weight of his jacket fo