EMILIA’S POV

I didn’t dare look back. I couldn’t. My entire body screamed against it, instinct clawing at me, telling me that if I ever turned my head, if I let my feet falter for even a heartbeat, I would never make it out alive.

The forest wasn’t just dark—it was alive. Every shadow felt like it breathed, every root seemed to grasp at my ankles. The storm above cracked the sky wide open, lightning flashing with violent brilliance, painting the world in split-second blinding white before plunging it back into suffocating black.

The thunder rolled after, deep and bone-rattling, like the growl of the Goddess herself.

And still, I...