Chapter Eight: The Bond Doesn’t Break
Far away, deep in the southern woods, Rhett felt it.
The pull.
A sudden lurch in his chest — like a wire buried beneath his ribs had just been yanked. Hard.
He stumbled, one knee hitting the ground, breath torn from his throat.
No.
It couldn't be happening yet.
Not this soon.
Not her.
---
Ava clutched the tree as the world around her tilted.
The mark on her skin flared again — not burning this time, but dragging.
It was pulling her toward something deeper, older.
Or maybe… pulling something toward her.
Her vision blurred. She blinked hard, and that's when she saw them.
Eyes.
Dozens of them.
Glowing in the distance between the trees. Low to the ground. No sound. No breath. Just stillness.
She backed away slowly, heart thudding.
The mark whispered something inside her bones.
Run.
But before she could, they moved — not at her, but around her.
Circling.
And then… they vanished.
Gone.
As if they'd never been there.
---
Rhett stood at the edge of a ravine, hands clenched into fists.
"She's drawing them," he growled. "Already."
A figure emerged behind him — tall, wrapped in the shadows of a dark cloak.
"So were you, once," the voice said. "Before the girl burned you clean."
Rhett didn't look at him.
"I need to go back."
The figure laughed, low and cruel.
"You think she'll still want you when she finds out the truth?"
"I don't care what she wants," Rhett said coldly. "I care what finds her first."
---
Back in the woods, Ava collapsed near the cabin steps, breath ragged.
She didn't know what those creatures were.
Didn't know why the trees felt like they had hearts.
Didn't know why her veins were starting to hum beneath her skin like moonlight in motion.
But she knew one thing.
She wasn't safe.
And if Rhett didn't come back soon…
It might be too late.