The forest swallowed the last flickers of violet light, leaving only darkness and the echo of the guardian's final words ringing in the heavy night air.
Sara reached Emerald first, dropping to her knees beside her. "Em, hey, hey. Look at me."
Emerald's breath shuddered in and out. Her magic still crackled beneath her skin, unstable, sparking in fits of heat and cold. She felt like she was vibrating apart.
"I'm fine," she managed.
She wasn't.
Sam crouched nearby, voice tight with alarm she tried (and failed) to hide. "Newsflash: you're definitely not fine. You just barked at a forty-foot magic wolf and lived."
Noah stepped closer, rubbing at his neck where the guardian's pressure had crushed the air from him minutes before. "Emerald… what did it mean? The veil thinning because of you?"
Emerald squeezed her eyes shut. "I don't know. But I felt it. When it spoke.."
Her voice trembled.
"..something in me recognized it. It wasn't lying. The more my power wakes up, the more it tears at this world."
Sara swallowed hard. "So you're saying this place, Earth, our world, can't hold you?"
"Not for long," Emerald whispered.
Silence dropped over them like a curtain.
The Sentinel stepped forward, its runes still glowing faintly from the brief clash. "The guardian spoke truth. The curse disguised her aura for years. But with the seal ruptured…" It looked down at Emerald, eyes flickering in a way that almost resembled sympathy. "Your presence destabilizes the barrier between realms."
Sam stood abruptly. "Okay, no. I'm drawing the line here. You're telling us she's some kind of… dimensional nuke?"
"I'm not." Emerald started.
But Noah cut in quietly. "Then we need to get somewhere safer. Somewhere the weakening veil can't be exploited."
The Sentinel nodded once. "The cabin is no longer secure. Forces loyal to the Queen will breach it by dawn."
Sara's hands tightened protectively on Emerald's shoulders. "Then we move now."
Sam groaned. "To where? We are five people, one half-dead princess, and one glowing robo-bodyguard. Running isn't a plan. It's a slow-motion disaster."
The Sentinel turned its head toward the forest. "There is a sanctuary. A neutral locus that predates her aunt and the Queen both. It is hidden within this realm, anchored to ancient ley lines. There, Emerald's magic will be muted. Hidden."
Emerald blinked. "Muted? You mean… controlled?"
"If you choose," the Sentinel replied. "Or suppressed. Temporarily."
Sam squinted at it. "And you're just now mentioning this secret safe haven because…?"
The Sentinel straightened, its tone rigid. "Because the guardian's appearance confirms the Queen's awakening from slumber. The sanctuary's protections will not hold long days, perhaps a week. But it is long enough for Emerald to regain the stability she needs."
Emerald's stomach twisted. "Regain… or be forced?"
The Sentinel hesitated.
Noah noticed. "What are you saying?"
The construct's glowing eyes dimmed slightly. "The sanctuary will shelter her. But it will also test her. The sanctuary was built to bend the heir toward the throne whether she wishes to claim it or not."
Sara stiffened. "No. Absolutely not. She's not a puppet."
"I never said she was," the Sentinel replied.
But the air between them strained.
Emerald forced herself to her feet, legs shaky, vision still pulsing green at the edges. "Can we argue in the car? Please?"
Sam snorted. "Princess commands. Let's go."
But as they made for the cabin, Noah paused. He crouched and touched the ground where the guardian had stood.
"It burned through the soil," he murmured. "Like acid."
Emerald looked back, and her blood ran cold.
The ground beneath the guardian's paws wasn't just scorched.
It was cracked.
Splintered in a starburst pattern.
And through the fissures, faint glimmers of violet shimmered, like light leaking from beneath a shattered shell.
Sara whispered, "That's… not normal, right?"
The Sentinel approached the cracks, its tone grave. "No."
"What is it?" Sam demanded.
The Sentinel's eyes dimmed further.
"The veil is fracturing."
Emerald's heart lurched painfully. "Because of me."
"Because the Queen is reaching through," the Sentinel corrected. "This is her mark. The guardian wasn't merely a messenger it was a scout."
Emerald's breath hitched.
Scout.
That meant more were coming.
Noah's voice dropped. "How much time?"
The Sentinel examined the cracks, runes flickering in uneasy patterns. "Hours."
Sara grabbed Emerald's hand. "Then we leave now."
They rushed toward the car, adrenaline pushing them forward.
But Emerald paused when she reached the door.
A sound drifted through the trees.
A faint whisper.
A howl.
Then another.
Distant.
But approaching.
Sam froze. "Tell me those are just wolves."
The Sentinel's voice dropped into a low, metallic growl.
"They are not."
Emerald strained her ears and heard the difference.
These weren't wolves.
They were… wrong.
Too many voices layered together. Too many harmonics. Too cold. Too purposeful.
The forest lanterned with dim purple motes.
One by one, tiny cracks of violet light began appearing between the trees.
"Get in the car!" Sam shouted.
Noah shoved open the back door. "Emerald, inside!"
Sara grabbed Emerald's arm and pulled her in.
The Sentinel jumped into the trunk space, its body folding unnaturally to fit.
Sam threw herself behind the wheel. "Seatbelts!"
The howls rose again closer.
Emerald's hands shook.
Her chest constricted.
Her magic surged, panicked and hot, pressing at the inside of her ribs.
Please, she begged silently. Not now. Not again.
Sam started the engine.
Noah twisted around, staring through the rear window.
His voice came out cracked and terrified:
"They're here."
Emerald turned not with her eyes, but with her magic, reaching instinctively outward.
And she felt them.
Shapes slipping through the fractured veil, hungry and bright with violet flame.
Hunting.
For her.
Sam floored the accelerator.
The car shot down the dark forest road. The headlights cut through branches and shadows.
Behind them, creatures burst from the trees twisted silhouettes of bone and smoke, bodies stitched with glowing cracks.
Sara gasped, clutching Emerald's arm. "What are those?"
The Sentinel answered, voice clipped.
"The Queen's hounds.
They only hunt royal blood."
Emerald's pulse thundered in her ears.
She stared back at the approaching violet lights.
And.