In an instant, three Skivoks burst from the brush, their skeletal bodies low to the ground as they scrambled through the forest with twitching limbs and snapping jaws. They didn’t seem to notice Liam or Charlotte immediately. Their multiple eyes were wide and unfocused, their nostrils flaring rapidly as though trying to escape something behind them.

Then one of them saw Smoke.

It shrieked immediately, causing the others to turn.

For a heartbeat, instinct overwhelmed fear, and the next moment, they lunged.

Before Liam could make a move, Charlotte did.

She blurred forward, not fully transformed, but with enough beast-like speed that her claws flashed through the air before the first Skivok could complete its leap. Its head twisted unnaturally as her strike tore through its throat.

Smoke took the second.

The shadow wolf slammed into it from the side, crushing it against a tree before tearing through its core with one swift bite.

The third tried to flee, but Liam was not about to let that happen.

One of his daggers appeared in his hand and left it in the same motion.

The blade struck the demon through the back of the spine, pinning it to the ground before flames flickered briefly and destroyed the core.

Silence returned quickly.

Charlotte straightened, shaking dark blood off her clawed fingers with mild disgust before retracting them back to her normal nails.

"See?" she said. "This is why I wanted to avoid fighting."

"You could’ve just left it for me."

"They were ugly."

Liam retrieved his dagger calmly.

"That’s your reason?"

"It’s a valid one."

Smoke lifted his head and looked deeper into the direction the Skivoks had come from.

Liam and Charlotte followed his gaze.

The forest beyond was darker there.

Not because of shadow.

Because the trees grew closer together, their branches twisting inward as if the woods themselves were trying to hide something.

Charlotte’s expression lost its teasing edge again.

"They were running from that direction," Liam said.

"Unfortunately," Charlotte muttered, "yes."

Liam looked at the three dead Skivoks.

Their bodies trembled slightly even in death, muscles still twitching from whatever panic had driven them forward.

He crouched again and examined one.

There were wounds along its back.

They weren’t from Charlotte or Smoke, but they did look fresh.

Deep claw gouges ran across its ribs, and near the side of its chest was another puncture mark that had missed the core by less than an inch.

’Was it too frightened that it failed to regenerate?’ Liam’s eyes narrowed as he wondered.

Charlotte noticed his expression immediately.

"No," she said instantly.

Liam looked at her.

"I didn’t say anything."

"You didn’t have to. Your face is doing that thing again."

Smoke gave a low growl, still staring toward the deeper woods.

Liam rose to his feet, turned toward that direction, and said calmly:

"We continue east."

Charlotte stared at him for a long moment before letting out a slow breath.

"Of course we do."

She stepped beside him, though her golden eyes remained fixed on the darker section ahead. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

"But slowly," she said firmly. "And if the forest starts feeling like death again, we stop."

Liam gave a small nod.

"Sure."

Charlotte looked at him from the side.

"And if I say we leave, we leave."

Liam didn’t answer immediately as he started walking.

"We’ll see."

Charlotte groaned softly and followed after him.

"I hate that answer."

The three of them moved forward again, leaving the bodies behind beneath the morning light.

By midday, the forest no longer felt like the same place they had left behind that morning.

At first, the changes had been subtle enough to ignore.

A tree with claw marks along its side, a patch of disturbed soil near the roots, and a faint blood scent lingering beneath the natural smell of bark, leaves, and damp earth.

But the farther east Liam, Charlotte, and Smoke moved, the more those small details began stacking on top of one another until they became impossible to dismiss.

The forest was changing.

Not in a way that would be obvious to someone rushing through blindly. The trees were still tall, the canopy still thick, and the ground still uneven with roots and stone. Sunlight still filtered down through broken gaps above, scattering pale gold across the forest floor. Insects still chirped in distant pockets, and occasional wildlife still moved somewhere far away from their path.

But there was a wrongness underneath it all.

A disorder.

The scent trails did not move naturally anymore.

And Charlotte noticed it first.

She had been walking slightly ahead of Liam for the past several minutes, her steps quiet and measured, her golden eyes continuously scanning the trees around them. She was not in her beast-dominant form, but even in her normal state, her senses remained sharper than most students. Every few moments, she tilted her head slightly, sniffing the air before adjusting their route by a few steps.

At first, Liam allowed her to lead without comment. After all, this was the reason he had accepted her coming along.

Her experience with the eastern side mattered.

But eventually, he noticed her pace slowing.

Charlotte came to a stop near a cluster of roots twisting out of the ground like old bones. She stared into the forest ahead without speaking.

Liam stopped behind her.

Smoke halted as well, lowering his body slightly beneath the shade of a nearby tree.

"What is it?" Liam asked calmly.

Charlotte did not answer immediately.

Her nose twitched once. Then again.

"The trails are messy," she said at last.

Liam’s eyes narrowed slightly.

"What do you mean?"

Charlotte crouched and placed a finger against the soil. She dragged it lightly across the dirt, tracing over several overlapping marks. Some belonged to small animals. Others were clearly demonic. A few were old and others were newer. But none of them seemed to follow any proper direction.

"They’re crossing over one another too much," Charlotte said. "Predators don’t usually move like this. Even demons have patterns. They hunt, circle territory, chase prey, retreat, return. But this..."

She paused and looked ahead again.

"This feels like everything keeps running through the same area from different directions."

"Panic movement," Liam said.

Charlotte nodded slightly.

"Or forced movement."

Liam crouched beside her and studied the marks for himself. He could see what she meant now. At least five different trails passed over one another within the same stretch of soil. Some went east. Some west. Some curved sharply to the side as though the creatures had changed direction in a hurry.

There was blood mixed into the dirt too.

Not much, but enough for them to notice.

Liam touched it lightly with two fingers, then lifted them toward his nose.

’Demons, as expected,’ he thought calmly.

"They were fleeing," he then said aloud.

"Some were," Charlotte replied. "But some were chasing."

Liam looked at her.

Charlotte’s expression tightened slightly.

"That’s what bothers me," she added. "It doesn’t feel like one big thing is scaring everything away. It feels like the entire food chain is eating itself."

Smoke released a low grunt.

Liam slowly stood.

"That matches the theory."

Charlotte looked at him from the corner of her eye.

"Of course it does. Because apparently this place has decided to prove every insane thing you read in that suspicious little book."

"It was informative."

"It was probably cursed."

Liam ignored that and looked ahead.

"We keep moving."

Charlotte gave him a flat look.

"You know, those three words are becoming less charming every time you say them."

"They were never meant to be charming."

"Yeah, yeah, I know, Baedyguard."

Still, she continued forward.

They moved slower after that.

No longer simply traveling east, but tracking the damage left behind by something that had passed through the region before them. Liam let Smoke scout ahead in shorter intervals now, never allowing the shadow wolf to move too far from them. Charlotte remained close enough to communicate quietly, but far enough ahead to read scent trails before they stepped directly into danger.

Their formation had changed naturally.

Charlotte led through scent and instinct, Smoke watched the perimeter, and Liam stayed between both, reading the terrain and watching for patterns.

It worked better than Liam expected.

Charlotte’s teasing did not disappear entirely, but it became less frequent. When she did speak, her voice remained low. Her earlier playfulness had not vanished, but it had settled beneath something more serious.

The eastern forest had that effect on her.

And Liam noticed every shift.

A while later, they found the first abandoned territory.

It was a shallow dip in the forest floor surrounded by thick roots and half-collapsed shrubs. The area smelled strongly of demon musk, old blood, and rotting meat. Several bones were scattered around the base of a large tree, some cracked open for marrow, others half-buried beneath leaves.

At first glance, it looked like the den of a Horror-class predator.

Except the den was empty. Abandoned even.

The bedding area had gone cold. The scent marking had faded. The bones had dried too much, and the ground carried no fresh prints from whatever had once lived there.

Charlotte stood near the edge of the den, her arms crossed.

"Something strong used to stay here," she said.

Liam stepped past her and crouched near one of the deeper claw marks along the ground.

"Advanced Horror?"

"Maybe," Charlotte answered. "Or a very aggressive Horror that thought too highly of itself."

Liam studied the area quietly.

There were signs of struggle.

The roots had been torn from the soil. A section of bark had been ripped from the tree. The ground held several deep gouges where claws had dug in hard enough to disturb the earth. But there was no body.

Just blood. Lots of it.

Liam stood slowly.

"It was attacked here."

"Yeah," Charlotte said. "And either dragged away or eaten somewhere else."

"Do you smell the attacker?"

Charlotte hesitated.

Then she sniffed the air again, her golden eyes narrowing faintly.

"Barely," she said. "It’s mixed with too many other scents."

"Try harder."

Charlotte glanced at him.

"Oh, now you’re ordering me around?"

"I thought I was your bodyguard."

Charlotte smiled despite the tension.

"That does come with privileges."

"Then use them."

She rolled her eyes but focused again.

For several seconds, Charlotte remained completely still, her attention fixed on the den. The forest around them seemed to quiet with her. Even Smoke stopped moving and watched her carefully.

Then her expression changed. Not much, but enough for Liam to notice.

"There’s something burnt," she said.

Liam’s gaze sharpened.

"Fire?"

"No. Not fire." Charlotte frowned slightly. "More like... heated blood and cooked flesh. But not from flames."

Liam remained silent.

Charlotte’s nose twitched again.

"And metal."

"Metal?" Liam repeated.

"Not actual metal. A metallic scent." She looked toward him. "Like blood, but sharper. Almost like the air after lightning strikes close."

"Did you smell that when you fled east?" Liam asked.

Charlotte looked away.

"Yes."