Aveline had no idea where Helena was leading her.
The forest swallowed the little light that remained, and soon there was only the dark, the hush of trees, and the faint, uneven sounds of something moving ahead of her. She had let Helena out because the lock had already been open, because the creature had looked too exhausted to be dangerous, and because Aveline had not had the heart to leave her there.
She had expected the other creatures to cry out, to stir, to give her away.
Instead, they stayed silent… as though they understood, and as though they knew this was not the time.
That only unsettled her more.
They acted more like humans.
And Helena—freed, yet somehow still insisting on her company—kept nudging her onward, not away, but deeper into the woods. Aveline had no explanation for it. The creature was free. It could have run. It could have vanished into the dark and never looked back.
So why was it still drawing her along?
Why her?
