The afternoon sun should have been bright, warm—a golden beacon stretching across the endless sky. But it wasn't. The light was off—weakened, sickly, like it had been tainted by something unseen. Shadows pooled unnaturally along the edges of the road, stretching farther than they should, clawing toward the sleek black car that carried Kael and Opal deeper into the heart of an unknowable dread.
The road twisted ahead, narrow and lined with towering trees. Their leaves whispered against one another, a dry, uneasy rustling, but the air inside the car remained eerily still. Opal shifted in her seat, her fingers twitching against her thigh as she scanned the passing landscape. Something felt wrong.
