Chapter 2 — Echoes of Darkness

Elias

The forest loomed like a silent sentinel under the oppressive gray sky, its bioluminescent veins flickering sporadically, as though the forest itself were shuddering in pain. Elias moved along the outer boundary, his boots crunching softly against the damp leaves carpeting the ground. A faint metallic tang hung in the air—a telltale sign of magic—and it prickled at the edge of his heightened senses. He paused, his broad shoulders taut with tension, and scanned the forest around him, his gray eyes narrowing at the unnatural stillness.

The forest had always thrummed with life: the rustling of leaves, birdcalls, and the faint hum of magic coursing through its roots. But now, silence hung like a suffocating shroud, broken only by the occasional creak of a branch disturbed by no visible force. The air itself felt wrong—weighted and cold, as though the forest resented his presence. The unease that had settled over the pack these past few weeks pressed heavily on Elias’s chest. Whatever was happening in the forest, it was spreading, and the fragile peace Riley had fought so hard to forge was unraveling with it.

A muffled sound broke through the quiet—a sharp crack of a branch snapping underfoot. Elias’s hand instinctively moved to the knife at his belt as he turned toward the noise. A figure stumbled out of the underbrush, his movements clumsy and frantic. It was a villager, his clothes torn and streaked with dirt and scratches. His face was pale, his eyes wide with terror. He tripped over a root and fell to his knees, his breathing ragged and uneven.

Elias stepped forward cautiously, lowering his weapon but keeping his guard up. “Thomas?” he called, recognizing the man as a herbalist who often ventured to the forest’s edge to gather plants. “What happened?”

Thomas looked up, his chest heaving as he struggled for breath. His eyes darted around, as if he expected shadows to leap from the trees at any moment. “Something… something’s out there,” he gasped, his voice shaking. “The shadows—they’re alive. They… they chased me. I don’t know what it was, but I felt it watching me.”

Elias crouched down beside Thomas, placing a steadying hand on the man’s shoulder. Despite his calm exterior, his own unease deepened. “Calm down,” he said evenly, his tone measured but firm. “Start from the beginning. What did you see?”

“I was at the old birch grove,” Thomas stammered, his words tumbling out in a rush. “Gathering nightshade for Clara. It was quiet—too quiet. Then I heard whispers. Not voices, but… sounds. Like… like the forest was speaking in tongues.” He shuddered violently, clutching at the torn fabric of his sleeve. “The light—it dimmed. The shadows—they started moving on their own. They surrounded me. I ran. I didn’t look back.”

Elias’s grip on the man’s shoulder tightened slightly, grounding him. “Did it follow you?” he asked, his voice low and steady, though the tension in his frame betrayed his concern.

Thomas shook his head, his gaze darting back toward the forest. “I—I don’t know. I just ran. It felt like… like something was reaching for me.”

Elias straightened, his sharp gaze scanning the forest edge. The faint flicker of bioluminescent veins in the trees seemed weaker, as if the forest’s magic was fading. Whatever was happening, it wasn’t confined to isolated incidents anymore. It was spreading like a sickness.

“You did the right thing by leaving,” Elias said. “Go back to the village. Stay inside the walls, and don’t come back into the forest until we figure out what’s going on.”

Thomas hesitated, glancing nervously into the darkened trees. “You’ll stop it, won’t you?” he asked, his voice tinged with desperation. “Whatever it is, you’ll make it go away?”

Elias met his gaze, his expression grim but resolute. “We’ll do everything we can,” he said.

With a reluctant nod, Thomas pushed himself to his feet and hurried back toward the village, his movements still clumsy with fear. Elias watched him go, the unease in his chest solidifying into something colder, heavier. His instincts screamed that the forest was no longer a passive entity—it was shifting, reacting.

He lingered for a moment, processing what Thomas had said. Moving shadows. Whispers. The forest speaking. Each detail painted a clearer picture of something far more ominous than simple decay. Elias’s jaw tightened as he turned back to the trees. He needed answers, and standing at the boundary wouldn’t provide them.

As he moved deeper into the forest, his senses remained on high alert. The bioluminescent veins on the trees pulsed faintly as he passed, their light flickering in a way that almost mimicked a heartbeat struggling to maintain rhythm. The ground beneath his boots felt softer than usual, the earth spongy and damp, almost as though it were recoiling from his steps. The air grew colder, the chill biting through his clothing and seeping into his bones.

Small plants wilted under an invisible weight, their stems bent and browning. Even the bark of the trees seemed corrupted, the usual glowing patterns broken by faint runes that pulsed faintly with a dark light before fading into obscurity. The whispers Thomas had described began to tease at the edges of Elias’s hearing—low, indistinct murmurs that seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere at once. He slowed his steps, letting the forest’s sounds surround him.

A faint rustling in the underbrush made him pause. He turned sharply, his hand moving to his knife again, but there was nothing there. The rustling stopped, replaced by the faint sound of whispers—low and fragmented, forming almost-words before dissolving into incoherence.

“Show yourself,” he said, his voice steady despite the tension coiled in his frame.

The whispers ebbed and flowed, like waves lapping at a shoreline, before fading into silence once again. Whatever was out there, it refused to reveal itself. Elias exhaled slowly, forcing himself to relax. Fear wouldn’t serve him here. Still, the forest felt alive in a way it hadn’t before—watching, waiting. This wasn’t the familiar presence he had grown to respect and rely on over the years. This was something darker, colder, and far more dangerous.

As he pressed on, his thoughts drifted to Riley. Her quiet determination, the way she carried the weight of the pack and the village without faltering—it was a strength he admired deeply, even as he worried about the toll it took on her. She had made the impossible choice to break the pact, to sever the wolves’ bond to the forest’s magic, and now she carried the consequences of that decision alone. Elias had seen the doubt in her hazel eyes, the way she questioned whether she’d done the right thing. But he also knew her resilience. If anyone could find a way to heal the fractures in their world, it was her.

By the time he reached the forest’s edge again, the sky had darkened further. Heavy clouds hung low, pregnant with rain, and the air felt thinner here, less oppressive but still carrying the weight of what he had witnessed. His pace quickened as he headed toward Riley’s cabin, the urgency of the situation pressing him forward.

He found her standing outside, arms crossed as she stared out toward the forest. Her hazel eyes, flecked with green and gold, met his as he approached. The question in her gaze was clear even before she spoke.

“What did you find?” she asked, her voice steady but laced with concern.

Elias stopped a few steps away, his broad shoulders casting a long shadow in the fading light. “Thomas,” he said. “He ran out of the forest. Said he saw shadows moving—heard whispers. The forest is changing, Riley. It’s worse than we thought.”

Her brow furrowed, and she glanced toward the trees. “Did you see anything?”

“Signs of decay,” he said. “Plants dying, the magic flickering. There are runes on some of the trees—dark ones, like scars. The forest feels… wrong. Sick. Like it’s turning against itself.”

Riley’s fingers tightened around the cold crescent moon pendant at her neck, her expression unreadable. “It’s spreading,” she murmured. Her gaze flicked back to Elias, determination hardening in her eyes. “We need to move faster.”

Elias nodded. “We can’t afford to wait. Whatever’s happening, it’s not going to stop on its own.”

She studied him for a moment, then squared her shoulders. “Then we start tonight,” she said. “Whatever the forest is hiding, we’ll find it.”

Elias stepped closer, his gray eyes meeting hers. “Together,” he said.

As the gray sky darkened into night, the forest loomed behind them, its silence heavy with secrets yet to be uncovered.