Hazel's POV
The moment my eyes met Aurora's, I knew something was wrong. She'd looked at Caspian, and then back at me, giving a sharp nod before whispering something under her breath I couldn't quite catch.
Then, without another word, she turned and walked ahead into the woods. Caspian and I followed in silence.
The forest around us was eerily quiet, the kind of quiet that made every twig snap feel like a gunshot. As we walked, I noticed how familiar everything felt—the bend of the trees, the twisted vines, the crunch of dried leaves underfoot. It was all too familiar.
Then it hit me.
This place… I had seen it before.
In my dreams.
I paused for a moment, heart pounding in my chest. The air smelled of burnt herbs, and ahead of us was a small wooden hut. Smoke curled from the crooked chimney in thin, ghostly streams. It was exactly the same as the one from my dream. The same tilted roof, the same moss-covered stones around it. Every detail.
