Page 29 of Shifting Hearts 1
I blink, and the dimly lit room is gone.
The woods stretch around me, moonless and vast. The trees are wrong, twisted, towering, their bark slick with something dark and pulsing. The air hums, thick with power. Not mine. Not his. Something older.
Something is watching, or someone.
A howl splits the silence.
Not a wolf, not a shifter.
Something else.
I turn, heart hammering, and see them; figures cloaked in shadow, eyes glowing like embers. They stand in a circle, chanting in a language I don’t know, but somehow feel. It coils around my spine, familiar and terrifying.
One of them steps forward.
A woman. Tall. Regal. Her hair is silver, braided with bone. Her eyes—storm-gray, like mine—lock onto me.
“You are the echo,” she says. “The blood that was buried.”
I try to speak, but my voice is gone.
She lifts a hand, and the forest shudders.
“You must remember,” she says. “Before it remembers you.”
The vision fractures.
Light. Noise. Pain.
The room tilts beneath me.
I stumble, breath catching, vision still flickering with shadows and silver eyes. My knees give out, and before I hit the ground, strong arms catch me.
I flinch on instinct.
He’s close. Too close. The scent of smoke, pine, and something darker wraps around me, grounding and electric.
“Hey,” he says, voice low, urgent. “Talk to me. What just happened?”
I blink up at him, disoriented. His face is sharp in the dim light, jaw clenched, eyes burning.
“I saw…” My voice cracks. “I don’t know what I saw.”
He steadies me, hands firm but careful. “A vision?”
I nod. “I think so. There were people. A woman. She said I was the echo, that I had to remember before it remembered me.”
His brow furrows. “What does that mean?”
“I don’t know,” I whisper. “I don’t even know who I am anymore.”
He studies me for a long moment, something unreadable flickering behind his eyes.
“I’m Kieran.” He offers, then, quietly he asks, “What’s your name?”
I hesitate.
It’s a simple question, but it feels loaded. Like saying it might unravel something I’ve been trying to hold together.
