Rylan’s POV
Morana stood still. Her eyes were sharp and flat, like she was reading lines on a map that I
couldn’t see.
“I think I can track her,” she said. “But I’ll need something of hers. Hair. Cloth. Anything she used.”
Her words made my hand tighten. “Her hairbrush,” I said. I remembered the small wooden hairbrush on my bedside table. Lisa had left it there when she fell asleep.
“Bring it,” Morana ordered.
Jared and Alex ran off at once. Avarok growled inside my chest. My wolf wanted to tear through the forest to look for Lisa on his own. But I held him back. We had to wait.
Minutes later, Jared returned with the brush wrapped in cloth. A few strands of Lisa’s hair clung to the bristles. They looked small and fragile in the torchlight.
Morana took the brush without a smile. She placed it on a flat stone, then pulled out a worn brass compass from her cloak. Its glass was cracked, its edges scratched. She set the compass beside the brush and sprinkled a pinch of ash over both.
“Personal things remember the ones who used them,” she said quietly. “This hair will guide us if the bond won’t.”
She raised her hands, closed her eyes, and spoke words that rolled steady and sharp, like drumbeats.
“By thread and ash, by name and bone,
Guide this compass, bring her home.”
The compass needle trembled. It spun once, then steadied. It didn’t point north. It turned south…..toward Shadowrune.
My stomach clenched.
“No,” I whispered. The word came out raw. Shadowrune was Fenric’s land. His coven’s nest of snakes.
Kael’s jaw locked. His fists curled tight. He didn’t speak but the fury in him was clear.
Morana didn’t flinch. She picked up the compass and pressed it into my hand. The metal was
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cold. It almost felt alive. “The hair remembers the path her body walked. Follow this, and we’ll find her.”
Kael barked an order. His men spread into formation, covering the flanks. We moved into the forest, guided by Morana’s compass.
The night was heavy and thick. Torches cast long shadows on the trees. The air smelled of damp earth and faint smoke.
At times, I caught the trace of Lisa’s scent. A faint ribbon drifting on the wind. But then it vanished, smothered by something unnatural. There was a cover like varnish poured over her trail.
Avarok pressed against my ribs. He was restless. He wanted to run. He wanted to call for Sierra. But every time I reached for her, there was nothing. No warmth. No voice. Just a hollow space where our bond should have been.
“She’s gone,” Avarok snarled. “Something blocks us.”
Morana walked close. Her silver hair caught the torchlight. She murmured under her breath. Her eyes were fixed on the compass. The needle tugged us south.
We passed a broken cart by the side of the road. Old tracks scarred the mud. The compass twitched, then pointed east, toward a narrow path that cut into the trees.
“She was taken this way,” Morana said.
Kael’s voice was hard as stone. “Then we follow.”
We pushed forward. The woods grew denser. The moonlight was barely breaking through the branches. Every sound felt too loud–the crack of twigs, the rasp of breath.
Avarok prowled at the edge of my mind. His nose worked the soil, the leaves and the faint traces of her steps. He growled low when he found the scent again. It was weak, but it was
there.
I kept thinking of her face. Of how she had smiled earlier. She was soft and calm, though
something in me had felt wrong at the edges. I hadn’t listened to that feeling. Now it twisted
my gut like a blade.
in
“Can you sense her now?” I asked Morana, my voice rough.
Her eyes flicked to mine. “Only shadows. The soul’s echo is wrapped and hidden. But this,” she touched the compass, “will not lie.”
We moved in silence after that. The forest seemed to hold its breath. Even the crickets had
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The compass needle quivered, then steadied again, pulling us deeper east. I felt the weight of every step, the ache of wanting to reach her and the fear that we might be too late.
Then, just as my chest burned from the hunt, my phone buzzed.
I stopped cold. The screen glowed in the dark. It was an unknown number.
My breath caught. No one should be calling me now. Not out here. Not while we were chasing her.
I pressed the phone to my ear. “Who is this?”
There was silence at first. Then, a woman’s voice which was shaking, nervous and desperate.
“Please… help me, Rylan,” she whispered. “I’m stuck at Shadowrune. I can’t leave.”
I froze. My heart slammed. For a split second, I thought…..Lisa?
But no. It wasn’t her voice. It was softer and edged with fear, but not Lisa.
Still, Avarok lunged inside me. His whole body tightened, his growl rising like a storm. He knew her. Somehow, my wolf felt a pull toward that voice. There was a connection which was sharp and strange.
My throat was dry. “Who are you?” I asked.
The line crackled. The woman’s voice broke. “It’s me, Lisa. Please. Believe me.”
I stood in the dark. The compass felt cold in my hand. Kael and the others were watching me with hard eyes.
It wasn’t Lisa’s voice. But my wolf knew that person.
And that made it worse.
Who was she? Why did Avarok react like that? My mind spun, torn between fear and disbelief. Was it a trick? Or was there another truth I didn’t yet see?
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