I felt it before I saw it... a slow, grinding pulse that rolled through the clearing, settling into my bones, heavy and old. Every muscle coiled, every nerve screamed. The larger shadow had arrived. Even under the blood-moon glow, its presence swallowed the space between us. It didn’t move like the others... those were hunters, testing me but this… this was judgment.

Silas’s hand dug into my arm. “Don’t get drawn in,” he murmured, low and sharp. “It wants more than a fight. It wants to break you.”

I drew a ragged breath, violet flames licking my wrists, stretching outward like living snakes. “Then it’ll have to try,” I said,...