Chapter 6 “Through The Veil”

I used to think storms ended when the rain stopped.

I was wrong.

The night Elara vanished, the sky cracked open — and it’s never been the same since. The air still hums with it, a low vibration that crawls under your skin. You can feel it when you walk near the forest, like the world itself is holding its breath.

I’ve been out there every day since she disappeared. Searching. Listening. Hoping. Everyone else gave up after the third day — said the forest swallowed her whole.

But I can’t. I won’t.

Elara wasn’t the kind of woman you just lose. She chooses her fate. If she’s gone, it’s because something bigger took her — and I’m going to find out what.

The border forest rises before me now, dark and endless. The rain from last night still clings to the leaves, the scent of wet pine thick in the air. My boots sink into the mud as I push deeper, past the markers the searchers left weeks ago.

The forest is silent — too silent. Not even a bird dares to sing here anymore.

I stop near the old creek. That’s where they found her satchel — and her footprints that just… stopped. Like she vanished into thin air.

I crouch and touch the ground. The soil is damp but warm, faintly pulsing beneath my fingertips. I jerk back.

That’s not possible.

Then the wind shifts. A whisper threads through the trees — my name.

“Liam…”

I spin, scanning the shadows. “Elara?”

Nothing. Just mist curling between the branches. But I swear I heard her — faint, desperate, like a memory clawing its way through the dark.

Something gleams ahead — half-buried in the mud. I walk toward it slowly, every sense on edge. When I kneel, my breath catches.

It’s a chain pendant, one I’ve seen a hundred times. A crescent moon carved into the metal — Elara’s. She wore it every day.

The moment I touch it, a shock runs through me — cold, electric, alive. For a heartbeat, I see her face — pale, frightened, bathed in silver light. Then it’s gone, leaving my pulse hammering.

The air trembles.

I shove the pendant into my pocket and glance toward the horizon. The sky above the forest is changing — clouds bleeding red where the sun should rise.

Something’s coming.

By the time I reach the village, the streets are nearly empty. People have started locking their doors before sunset now. They whisper that the Blood Moon is returning — an omen of the old world breaking through.

I don’t believe in omens. I believe in Elara.

Inside her cottage, everything smells like her — herbs, smoke, and the faint trace of pine oil. I light a candle and set the pendant on the table beside her journal. The silver catches the flame, gleaming faintly red.

I stare at it for a long time, jaw clenched. “If you’re out there, Elara,” I whisper, “just hold on. I’m coming for you. Whatever’s taken you — whatever this is — I’ll find it.”

The candle flickers. The flame bends, pointing toward the window. Outside, the wind stirs — not random, but deliberate. A low growl rolls through the air, distant but real.

The sound doesn’t belong to any beast I know.

I grab my coat and the pendant, heart pounding. If the forest thinks it can scare me away, it’s wrong. The storm took her. The storm left me with a trail.

And this time, I’m following it.