TIDES OF FATE

nd them, as though guarding some ancient secret, and the night air was thick with the scent of damp earth and pine. She wanted to as

on loomed overhead, casting long, eerie shadows. Dante stopped, and L

voice almost a whisper, as thoug

, though her skin prickle

as if searching for something buried deep with

energy thrumming in her veins, raw and powerful. It was a feeling she'd never no

s?" she stammered, h

h about who you are, Lila." He paused, glancing up at the moon. "Some of us were neve

n unexplainable longing. She felt as though she were standing on the

sed, a spark of determinatio

incts are sharper, lives are rawer, and everything you've been told to fear... is part of you." He stepped cl

seemed to buzz under the full moon. She had always dismissed it as her ima

" she whispered. "Wh

ne of us. Part of an ancient line connected to the fore

sible, absurd... but also thrilling in a way she couldn't expla

thers who felt lost, like you." He

something hidden behind his intensity, but to hear him acknowledge it made it

a hint of pain. "Yes. And no. My life... it's c

escape this strange reality he was opening before her. But the other part, the part that

ns now?" sh

"Now you have a choice, Lila. To stay in the life

he could leave it all behind for this hidden world, for the truth about who she really was

uldn't ignore. She had spent so long feeling incomplete, like a puzzle missing a piece. A

e forest. She hesitated, glancing back toward the path that led home, where everything

st close in around them as she left her old life behind, unaw