Chapter-4 The road that doesn’t forgive

They didn’t stop running until the sun began to sink and the air turned colder.

Eren finally called a halt in a shallow ravine where the trees leaned close, forming a natural ceiling of branches. The place was dark even before night fully arrived—good for hiding, bad for breathing.

Eli collapsed first, wheezing. Aurelia dropped beside him instantly, brushing hair from his sweaty forehead.

“You did good,” she whispered. “So good.”

Eli tried to nod but looked like he might cry again. “Did… did the wolf-boy die?”

Aurelia’s throat tightened painfully.

Phil, standing a few steps away, went stiff at the words wolf-boy.

Eren didn’t answer Eli. He stared into the woods like he could see through shadows.

Kael wasn’t with them yet. Neither was Sorrel.

That meant either:

they were still alive and following the plan, or

something else had gone wrong.

Aurelia couldn’t decide which terrified her more.

Her grandmother pressed her palm against the earth, eyes closed. The old herbs she carried weren’t just for medicine—they were for sensing. Aurelia didn’t fully understand how, but Nana’s face slowly tightened, as if the ground itself whispered to her.

“We need to move again,” Nana said, opening her eyes.

Eren snapped, “We just moved.”

Nana’s gaze was sharp. “And if we stay, we become a story someone sells.”

Phil exhaled hard through his nose. He looked like he wanted to argue, but he held back. Instead, he turned to Aurelia.

“Are you okay?”

Aurelia nodded too quickly. “I’m fine.”

Phil’s eyes flicked to her wrist—hidden under her sleeve. His mouth tightened.

“You’re lying,” he said softly.

Aurelia blinked. “Phil—”

He looked away first, like he couldn’t handle seeing her eyes right now. “You always say you’re fine when you’re not. You did it when you fell from the apple tree. You did it when your mother—”

He stopped himself.

Aurelia’s chest clenched.

Eren’s voice cut in, rough. “Don’t.”

Phil swallowed, then forced a breath. “Sorry. I didn’t mean—”

“I know,” Aurelia whispered. “It’s just… a lot.”

Her grandmother’s voice came like a blade through cloth. “It will get worse before it gets better.”

Aurelia hated how Nana said that like it was normal.

Eli lifted his head. “Where are we going?”

Nana stared toward the north—where mountains cut the horizon like teeth. “To Aranveil.”

Eren’s head snapped up. “No.”

Aurelia frowned. “Why ‘no’?”

Phil’s brows knit. “What’s in Aranveil?”

Nana’s mouth tightened. “The only person left who might know how to weaken a blood-mark without killing the one carrying it.”

Aurelia’s heart thudded. “The mark can kill me?”

Silence.

That was answer enough.

Eren’s face turned pale with anger. “You knew that.”

Nana didn’t flinch. “I suspected.”

Eren’s voice shook. “And you still let it happen?”

Nana’s gaze softened just slightly. “We didn’t ‘let’ it happen, Eren. Fate doesn’t ask permission. And mercy has consequences.”

Aurelia stared at her wrist through her sleeve, dread creeping higher. “So someone can remove it…”

Nana nodded once. “Not remove. Not fully. But weaken it. Break the beacon part. Make it harder for hunters to track you.”

Phil’s eyes narrowed. “Hunters like the men we saw?”

Nana’s voice dropped. “Those men were not the worst. They were hired hands.”

Aurelia’s stomach turned. “By who?”

Nana hesitated.

Eren’s hand clenched around the hilt of his sword. “Say it.”

Nana’s eyes looked older than ever. “Someone who knows our bloodline. Someone who has hunted it before.”

Phil frowned. “A person?”

Nana’s voice was almost a whisper. “A name that stays hidden behind other names.”

Aurelia felt cold. “Zorath.”

Eren’s expression hardened. “Don’t say it loudly.”

Aurelia swallowed. “So he’s real.”

Nana’s gaze flicked toward the woods. “He is real. And he does not need to show his face to destroy you.”

Phil’s jaw tightened. “Then we need to disappear.”

“We can’t,” Nana said.

Phil snapped, “Why not?”

Because Nana turned toward Aurelia, eyes wet but fierce.

“Because he is not only hunting you,” Nana said. “He is hunting the one bound to you.”

Aurelia’s breath caught.

The wolf-boy.

Habeel.

Her pulse tripped over itself.

Eli whispered again, “The wolf-boy…”

Aurelia forced her voice steady. “What do you mean ‘bound’?”

Nana’s hands trembled. “When you healed him as a child… you tied your bloodline to his curse.”

Aurelia’s skin prickled. “I didn’t mean to.”

“I know,” Nana said gently. “But magic doesn’t care what you meant.”

Phil’s face tightened, something sharp flickering across it—fear? jealousy? both?

Eren looked like he might shatter. “So because she was kind, the whole world wants her dead.”

Nana nodded, eyes shining. “Yes.”

Aurelia’s throat burned. “So what do we do now?”

Before Nana could answer—

A whistle sliced through the ravine.

Not the hunters’ whistle.

A different one. A signal.

Eren spun instantly, sword drawn. “Who’s there?”

A figure dropped from the tree line like a shadow given human form—lean, quick, familiar.

Sorrel.

She landed lightly, brushing dirt from her cloak like she’d merely stepped off a porch instead of leaping through death.

Eren exhaled in relief. “Finally.”

Sorrel grinned. “Miss me?”

Eren rolled his eyes. “No.”

Sorrel’s grin widened. “Liar.”

Kael emerged behind her a second later, calmer but visibly tired. “We circled back. The hunters are searching in groups. They lost your trail for now.”

“For now,” Sorrel echoed, serious now. “But they’re organized. This isn’t some village mob.”

Phil stepped forward. “How many?”

Kael shrugged. “Enough that if we fight head-on, we die.”

Eren muttered, “Finally. Someone said it plainly.”

Sorrel’s eyes flicked to Aurelia. “You okay, healer girl?”

Aurelia started to say I’m fine—then stopped herself.

Because Phil was watching.

And she was tired of lying.

“I’m scared,” Aurelia admitted quietly. “But I’m still here.”

Sorrel’s expression softened a fraction. “Good. Scared people survive longer. Brave people do stupid things.”

Eren snorted. “She’s both.”

Aurelia glared. “Excuse me?”

Phil chuckled under his breath—then stopped when he realized he’d laughed at something that wasn’t funny.

That was the problem.

Nothing was funny.

Not really.

And yet, somehow, with Sorrel’s bluntness and Kael’s quiet steadiness and Eren’s stubborn love—

Aurelia felt, for the first time, like she wasn’t drowning alone.

Nana stood, shoulders squaring. “We leave tonight. We take the high ridge trail. It’s colder and harder… but it hides footprints.”

Kael nodded. “Smart. Rivers and ridges erase scent.”

Phil frowned. “Scent?”

Sorrel looked at him like he was adorable and doomed. “Yeah, fiancé. Some trackers don’t use eyes.”

Phil stiffened. “Stop calling me that.”

Sorrel smirked. “Why? Is it not true?”

Phil’s jaw tightened. “It’s true.”

Sorrel’s gaze flicked to Aurelia’s face for half a second—too quick, too sharp.

Then she smiled like a knife. “Then keep up.”

Eren stepped between them instantly. “Leave him alone.”

Sorrel raised her hands. “Relax. I’m just testing if he bites.”

Phil muttered, “I don’t bite.”

Sorrel’s grin turned wicked. “We’ll see.”

Aurelia’s cheeks warmed despite herself.

Cringe. Funny. Tension.

A tiny breath of normal.

Then the mark on Aurelia’s wrist pulsed hard—hotter than before.

Aurelia gasped, clutching her arm.

Habeel.

The thought hit her like lightning.

Something happened to him.

Nana caught Aurelia’s wrist, fingers tightening. “It’s reacting.”

Aurelia’s voice shook. “To what?”

Nana’s gaze went distant, horrified. “To distance.”

Aurelia’s breath caught. “Distance from him?”

Kael’s eyes narrowed. “So the bond pulls you back.”

Sorrel went quiet. Even she looked unsettled.

Phil took a step closer to Aurelia, protective and lost. “What does that mean?”

Nana’s voice trembled. “It means… the mark doesn’t want you separated.”

Aurelia’s heart pounded violently.

Because her mind flashed to emerald eyes.

To the way he’d stepped between her and death without hesitation.

To his voice: You run. I buy you time.

Aurelia whispered, “Habeel…”

Phil froze.

He heard the name.

And in his face, something broke—small, silent, almost invisible.

Not anger.

Not cruelty.

Just the first taste of a realization he didn’t want:

There was someone else in Aurelia’s heart now.

Even if she hadn’t admitted it yet.

Eren noticed Phil’s expression and softened for a heartbeat. Then he looked at Aurelia and said, very quietly:

“We’re going to find him.”

Nana’s head snapped. “No. Our priority is Aranveil.”

Aurelia’s voice shook but didn’t break. “He saved us. We can’t just leave him—”

Nana’s eyes flashed. “You will die if you turn back!”

Aurelia’s chest tightened painfully. “Then what am I supposed to do—pretend I don’t care?”

Silence.

Because she cared.

And everyone saw it.

Kael stepped in, voice calm. “We don’t turn back. We move forward. But we move smart.”

He pointed toward the ridge line. “If Habeel survived, he’ll track you. He’s been doing it for years.”

Aurelia’s breath caught.

Sorrel nodded slowly. “And if he didn’t…”

No one finished that sentence.

Nana’s voice turned firm. “We go to Aranveil. We weaken the mark. Then we deal with Zorath. In that order.”

Aurelia swallowed her grief like poison.

“Fine,” she whispered. “Aranveil.”

Eli tugged Aurelia’s sleeve. “Will the wolf-boy find us?”

Aurelia forced a smile that hurt. “I think he always does.”

⸻

They packed quickly. No fire. No bright light. No trace.

As they started up the ridge trail, the wind grew sharper, stinging Aurelia’s cheeks like punishment.

She walked beside Phil, and he tried—he really tried—to be normal.

“You’re cold,” he said, pulling off his cloak.

“I’m okay,” Aurelia started—

Then stopped.

Because she’d promised herself she’d stop lying.

She nodded. “Thank you.”

Phil draped the cloak over her shoulders carefully, like she was something fragile.

His fingers brushed her collarbone by accident.

Aurelia stiffened.

Not because it was wrong—

Because it felt… different now.

And Phil felt it too.

His hand withdrew quickly.

He forced a smile. “Once we reach Aranveil, we’ll fix this. Then we’ll go home.”

Aurelia looked at him.

Home.

What even was home now?

She opened her mouth to answer—

And the mark flared again, hot enough to make her stumble.

Aurelia gasped.

Kael caught her elbow. “Easy.”

Aurelia’s breath came in short bursts. “It’s pulling…”

Nana’s face went pale. “It’s calling.”

Aurelia’s eyes widened. “Calling to who?”

The forest answered before Nana could.

A low growl rolled through the ridge like thunder.

Not from an animal.

From something that wasn’t fully human.

Aurelia turned sharply.

And there, in the shadows below the trail, a pair of emerald eyes glowed briefly—

then vanished.

Aurelia’s heart slammed against her ribs as a whisper—warm, close, and unmistakably his—slid into the wind:

“I found you.”

⸻

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