Chapter 11: A Crack in the Wall

The forest swallowed me, but I couldn't outrun the image seared behind my eyes: Kaelen and the red-haired woman, their easy intimacy. The jealousy was a sick, hot coal in my stomach, burning alongside the ever-present ache of the Bond. I walked blindly, driven by a hurt so profound it overshadowed even the instinctual fear of the hunter. I was a fool. A pathetic, desperate fool clinging to the memory of a man who had clearly moved on, who saw me as nothing but a complication. I didn't get far....