"“It leads you to the Grove. Don’t ignore it. It’s not safe, but you have to.”"
5
"“Your ex was a fool, Rory. But he wasn’t the only one watching you. The stone—give it back to who sent it. Before they come for it. Before they come for you.”"
6
"Overnight delivery with a side of fae curses"
7
"behind"
8
"A deer?"
9
"Time’s starting"
10
"Fun"
11
"Metal"
12
"Listen"
13
"Laila"
14
"in her bones"
15
"Laila"
16
"Given to Aurora by an unknown benefactor"
17
"You came"
18
"We’ve waited"
19
"hungers"
20
"feels"
21
"Eva tried to hide you"
22
"But stones don’t lie. And neither do we"
23
"She failed"
24
"Now you pay"
25
"cracking"
26
"echoing"
27
"a thing that looks like a girl"
28
"You have it back"
29
"But it’s not enough. Not yet"
30
"The Grove remembers"
31
"It knows you took it. It *waits"
32
"Eva lied to you"
33
"She never wanted to protect you. She wanted to *take"
"Metal catches—she flips it open, and the pendant pulses, crimson light bleeding through the silver chain."
1
"Aurora presses closer to the standing stones—ancient oaks, their trunks scarred with carvings she can’t parse, their bases buried in muck."
2
"The sound doesn’t come from the trees—it’s *behind* her, low and wet, like something dragging a net through leaves."
3
"One of the oaks creaks, and she sees it then—a flicker of fur, a flash of antler, between the trunks."
4
"*A deer?* But deer don’t move like that—low to the ground, shoulders hunched, as if kneeling to avoid being seen."
5
"The Grove’s other spell, the one Eva mentioned in the letter—time."
6
"The leaves—what little there are—turn black, crumbling to dust."
7
"Vines twist into handles, and behind them, a flash of light—pale, blue, like moonlight on water."
8
"The door in the tree rips open, wood splintering, and a wind bursts through—cold, with a metallic tang, like blood."
9
"Then—footsteps."
10
"The name isn’t in her head—it’s *in her bones*."
11
"She can’t see anything, but she *feels* them—bodies, warm and clammy, pressing in from all sides."
12
"The creature behind the door steps into the light—tall, thin, with skin like wet paper and eyes that are two black pits."
13
"The carvings burn her skin, but she doesn’t stop—ripping her hand free, the pendant in her grasp, and shoving it into the door’s lock."
14
"Then the pain comes—shards of glass in her arms, a throb in her skull—and the sound of glass *cracking*."
15
"Behind them—something else."
16
"No—*a thing that looks like a girl*."
17
"The trees rustle, and somewhere, a branch snaps—too near, too loud."
18
"The red in her eyes brightens, and a laugh escapes her—dry, rattling, like broken glass."
19
"The door in the oak is open again, the light inside pulsing with a familiar rhythm—the same rhythm as the Heartstone, the same rhythm as her own heartbeat."