#Chapter 177: The Split Oath

Richard The wind burned sharper the farther north we rode. Smoke still hung over the trees like a bruise, and the dirt under our boots had the pale, crumbled look of ash long settled into the earth. We were days past the ballroom now, hours past the last confirmed sighting, and I couldn’t stop replaying the moment I saw her disappear, how fast it had all gone wrong, how the sound of that warped bell stayed lodged behind my teeth. Nathan rode half a pace behind me, silent and watchful. He didn’t ask where we were headed anymore. He knew I didn’t have a solid answer. I only knew the direction the bond pulled me in, though even that was beginning to feel uncertain. It wasn’t broken or blocked, but dulled, like trying to hear through a locked door. And sometimes it was worse, like someone else had found the string and tied knots I couldn’t see. The first village had been abandoned, eerily quiet, with everything overturned but not stolen. The second held bodies, slumped against scorch