Chapter 36: For Kieran
When Autumn stepped out of the room, Dax was standing there, waiting for her ,his head hung.
He took Autumn towards the other edge of the border. A car waited for them there. He helped her inside and then drove... in complete silence.
Autumn sat stiffly in the passenger seat, her fingers clenched around the fabric of her jeans, her gaze fixed on the blur of trees rushing past the window.
Dax had not yet spoken a word since they left. Neither had she.
Her heart was a leaden weight in her chest, aching with a grief she could not even understand.
"This isn’t goodbye," Kieran had said. But the way he had looked at her...like he was carving her into his bones...felt like a farewell. His words... felt like a goodbye.
She lost track of time while the car rushed through the woods. It must have been hours at least.
She had no blindfold on this time.
Everything looked... off. The trees were taller here, thinner, as if stretched unnaturally. The colors too sharp, almost bruised
The terrain shifted. The air grew thicker, charged with something ancient. The trees twisted into grotesque shapes, their bark blackened as if scorched by an unseen fire. And then...
A ripple.