Morning came slow, like the sky itself was unsure of what would follow. Cold wind rattled the mouth of the cave. Somewhere behind me, the others stirred, but I stayed curled beneath my cloak, watching Kai across the fire.
He sat cross-legged, cleaning his blade with a worn cloth, movements steady, almost ritualistic. The kind of focus people wore when they didn't want to think.
"You're quiet," I said. My voice felt strange in the hush.
He didn't look up. "So are you."
"You didn't ask about yesterday."
"I didn't need to." He folded the cloth and slid the blade back into its sheath. "I saw enough."
I waited for him to say more, but the silence just stretched between us.
"I don't understand what happened," I admitted. "When the wolf came at me—my body just... moved. I didn't think. I didn't even feel it until after."
Kai finally met my eyes. "That's how it begins. Instinct before understanding."
"You've seen this before?"
He hesitated, just a beat too long. "Something like it. A long time ago."
"Someone like me?"
His jaw tensed. "Not like you. Not exactly. She didn't survive her awakening."
I pulled my knees to my chest. "But you think I will."
He didn't answer right away. Just stared at the fire like it might spell the future in its smoke...
We moved out by noon. The forest thickened around us, all dark bark and damp moss. The deeper we went, the quieter it got—like the woods were holding their breath.
Mira led with a map older than the youngest wolf in the group. According to her, we were heading toward a ruin hidden in the northern cliffs, something tied to the old bloodlines. She called it "The Circle."
I didn't tell them that name echoed in my head like a pulse every time I closed my eyes.
We reached a narrow gorge by dusk. The cliffs curved inward, wrapped with roots as thick as Kai's arms and twice as tangled. Fog drifted between the trees, clinging low to the ground.
Something in my bones itched. Not fear. Recognition.
"This is it," I said. I didn't know how I knew. I just did.
Mira looked surprised. Kai didn't.
He stepped beside me. "The Circle isn't a place, Luna. It's a key."
"To what?"
"Doors that should've stayed shut."
Inside the gorge, we found ruins—pillars half-buried in moss, carved with the same symbols I'd seen in my dreams. I traced one with my fingers. It hummed under my skin like it remembered me.
We set camp there. No fire this time. The air was too thick, the night too watching.
Mira began drawing a circle in the dirt, this time with something darker than ash. Bloodroot and salt. She chanted softly, words spilling like water over stone.
I sat in the center. The cold crept up through the earth into my spine.
Then I saw it—through the trees. A shadow. Not shaped like a wolf. Not shaped like anything that should exist.
It didn't move. It just watched.
I looked to Kai, but he was already staring into the dark, body still, eyes hard. He saw it too.
"It's not attacking," I whispered.