Dead leaves crackled beneath Orion’s feet. Already. And he hadn’t even reached the foot of the hill yet.

He dropped to his knees and let his fingers sift through the gray dust. Smudges clung to his skin, as if it had been mixed with ash. “It’s spread again.”

Astoria didn’t answer. She leapt onto a boulder and stared down past the dead trees. Her white plume of a tail was streaked with dark smudges.

Her silence was agreement enough.

He stood beside her and let his hand glide along her back. As always, the touch calmed him—slightly. But it wasn’t nearly enough to ease the restlessness that gnawed at him.

Astoria brushed her head against his arm as they looked down the slope, over all the dead trees. Just a few meters below, not a single leaf remained on the branches. From the rocky coastline, the forest was dying. Not just here—everywhere. It was like the blackened edge of a festering wound, devouring more and more of the flesh.

The white cat leapt from the rock and wandered through the desolate landscape. The bleakness hit Orion like a wave. He remembered the variety of trees and plants that had once filled this place, the fields of flowers and mushrooms. Now, none of it remained. The gnomes, the phoenixes, the froglings and the grasslanders—they were all gone. Not even a flutterdrake could be seen, though entire swarms had once been here.

Orion’s gaze swept the ground, searching for clues, for anything that might explain this death. But there was nothing. Nothing but shriveled trees and mounds of dust.

He didn’t know how long it had been happening. He’d first noticed it a year ago, when he reached the coast. The jagged shoreline stretched deep inland, making him suspect that the decay had begun long before that.

Still, it felt like it was speeding up.

How long until there was nothing left of the forest at all? How was he supposed to trace the source? It tore at him. He couldn’t ask for help in Holtgaard. He wasn’t welcome there anymore. Besides, they never looked beyond the borders of their village anyway. The exile camp wouldn’t act either.

He knew a few odd folk, and some forest creatures he occasionally chatted with, but they always found him, and rarely the other way around. They lived solitary lives—there was simply no central authority in the wilderness anymore, no one making decisions.

Loneliness closed in on him like a tight shoe around a bruised foot. Astoria felt it. She came to walk beside him and brushed against his leg. He gave a faint smile.

Yes, he had his cats. They’d always be there for him.

And they were smarter than most of the people he knew—or had known. And yet… he missed the company of another human. Another perspective than his own. After all, it was his own enchantments that had made his cats what they were, and he was keenly aware that their flaws mirrored his own. The ideas they came up with were often just extensions of his own thinking.

Suddenly, the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. Something dark buzzed in the air. Orion knew exactly what it was—who it was. Just a moment ago, he had wished for human company, and now that the wish had come true, it felt all wrong.

He should walk away, ignore him—but he couldn’t. His eyes drifted through the trees until he saw him. The black cloak blended easily into the grey surroundings, but the pale hair caught the sunlight.

“All shall return to dust. One of the oldest truths there is.”

Astoria arched her back and growled, stepping in front of Orion. “Leave us alone.”

“Us?” Locke didn’t bother turning around. “You know I’m not here for you, fleabag.”

She hissed at him, her tail puffing up like a tree trunk.

Locke turned and strolled toward them, stopping a meter away. His hands slid casually into his coat pockets. “Heartache, Orion. Do you know what that feels like?”

“What are you doing here?”

“That’s what I mean. Always that cold tone.” Locke frowned and rubbed his chest. “It hurts, you know.” He tilted his head slightly, studying Orion’s face.

Orion looked away. He hated Locke’s face. At first glance it had seemed so familiar, but now he knew every sharp angle, the dark glow in his eyes, the mocking curve of his lips.

“I’m not human. You know that, right?”

“Go. Away.”

“No. Because this matters.” He leaned forward, as if stretching some invisible boundary, knowing that crossing it would bring consequences. “Maybe the forest is in pain because I’m in pain. Because you keep pushing me away.”

Astoria snorted. “You’re not that important.”

“You’re smarter than that, Astoria. You know what it means to be raised above all other creatures. Magic lives in you, just like it lives in me.”

Orion’s tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth. The words his father had said to him so many times echoed through his mind. That he carried chaos within him, that it could only be tamed by surrendering to order. That he would unleash darkness if he strayed from the path.

Words he had always brushed aside, chalked up to grief and fear. But what if his father had been right? He had left the path. And Locke had found him. What if Locke really was poisoning the forest—just to torment him? To take what Orion refused to give?

“What do you want from me?” His voice was hoarse. Maybe even defeated.

“You know what I want.”

“And you know I can’t give it to you. Even if I wanted to.”

Locke snorted. “Then you’ll just have to try harder.”

“Prove you’re really the cause of the decay first,” Astoria interrupted. “You’re manipulating him. Again.”

Locke grimaced, his features so twisted that Orion no longer saw the boy he’d once resembled. “Our lives are bound together,” he growled—almost animal-like. “You’ll never be rid of me.”

He turned once—then again, spinning until he dissolved into black smoke.

A weight settled in Orion’s chest. Memories scraped against his mind—memories of Locke making him laugh, of long walks where Orion sometimes forgot everything. Literally everything—like a spell that wrapped around you sweetly, then clouded your vision.

Astoria twined around his legs. “Don’t let him get to you, Orion.”

Too late. He bit the inside of his cheek. “Let’s go back.”

She meowed in agreement.

Orion turned and started walking. He heard no footsteps behind him, but he knew Locke was there—following, like the shadow he could never shake.