Chapter 4 — The Forest's Embrace

Riley went into the forest at first light with her father’s journals on her back and his confession still raw in her chest, and this time she did not wait for the whispers to lead. She went looking.

If Marcus Thorn had found a third path — a circle to share the weight the forest demanded — then the forest itself had to know the shape of it. He had studied this ground for twenty years. Somewhere under the moss were the places he had worked, the marks he had made, the answer he had been too afraid to finish. She meant to find them.