I don't know how long we've been walking, but the air is changing.
It's thicker here… charged. Every breath feels like I'm inhaling not just air, but magic.
The trees don't look like trees anymore — they look like watchers. Tall, ancient, and wise. Their roots twist like the fingers of old gods, reaching toward us as if to feel our steps and weigh our intentions.
"Where are we?" I whispered to Kael — or, well, the gray wolf beside me.
He didn't answer, but he slowed, his golden eyes scanning the path ahead. I followed his gaze and saw it:
A crumbling stone archway wrapped in silver vines and moss. Runes shimmered faintly along the curved arch — glowing the same eerie blue as the markings on Kael's arm and chest.
I stopped breathing for a moment.
This wasn't just part of the forest.
This was something sacred.
A boundary.
A trial.
A gate.
"The Threefold Gate," said a new voice, soft and ancient, yet echoing all around us like it came from the wind, the earth, and the sky at once.
I jumped, blade ready in my hand, spinning to find the source.
There — beneath a tree older than time — stood a woman cloaked in forest leaves and silver thread. Her skin was pale like moonstone, her eyes glowing like white fire.
A druid. Or something even older.
"Who… who are you?" I asked.
She smiled gently, her hands folded over her chest.
"A guardian. A watcher. A memory."
"And you… are the seed of something lost. And something soon to be born."
Her words made no sense. But they made my heart race.
Kael growled low beside me, stepping between us. The druid raised her hand, and he stopped moving. Not out of fear — but reverence. As though she wasn't threatening him… but reminding him of something long buried.
She turned to me again.
"You seek the Miracle Leaf," she said.
"It lies beyond the Threefold Gate. But to pass, you must offer one of three things: your blood, your trust, or your truth."
I stared at the gate.
My blood?
My trust?
My truth?
The blade in my hand trembled.
My blood… it carried the past. Pain. Loss. The lineage I don't fully understand.
My trust… I had already given so much of it to Kael, without even knowing what he really was.
But my truth…
I swallowed.
"Why me?" I asked her.
"Why is everything suddenly tied to me?"
She stepped forward slowly and reached for my hand — the one that held the glowing blade. When she touched me, images rushed into my head:
A woman with silvery eyes and a gray wolf standing beside her.
A child born under a blood moon.
A forbidden love that defied the packs and the forest alike.
"Because your blood remembers," she said.
"Because your heart chose long before you ever knew his name."
My eyes widened.
"You mean… me and—?"
She only nodded toward the gate.
"Choose, Sophie of Windhollow. The forest cannot wait forever."
I turned to Kael. He was still in his wolf form, watching me. Something about his eyes looked pained… worried.
I held out my hand toward him — open, trembling.
"I choose trust," I said.
The runes on the gate blazed brighter. The wind howled like a thousand wolves in chorus. The blade in my hand pulsed.
Kael took a step forward.
Then another.
Until his paw was in my palm.
The gate opened.
And beyond it… a path bathed in silver light, with mist that danced like spirits and trees that whispered like they knew my name.
But something told me… this was only the beginning.