The Human Among Wolves (Aurora) novel Chapter 165

Chapter 165

Aurora

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We didn’t stay much longer. Kael double–checked the back room, found nothing but dust and overturned furniture, and came back out looking grim. Zayn kicked dirt over the pendant before Kael could stop him. “We’re not leaving that thing exposed,” he said.

Kael didn’t argue. He just grabbed his backpack and slung it over one shoulder. “Let’s move.”

Outside, the air felt heavier. The stillness from before hadn’t lifted–it had deepened. Every sound seemed too sharp, like the world was holding its breath and we were the interruption.

The moment my boots hit the damp ground, the smell of earth and pine hit stronger, sharper. The wind had died completely. Not a

single leaf stirred.

Kael started forward first, his movements clipped, focused. “Stay close.”

Zayn fell into step behind me, silent as ever. His presence was a steady warmth at my back, and somehow that helped.

We walked in the same direction we’d come from–or at least, it should have been. The forest looked different now. The path wasn’t

a path anymore. The ground seemed unfamiliar, the moss thicker, the trees pressed closer together.

Kael slowed, glancing around. “That’s strange,” he muttered.

“What?” I asked.

He pointed ahead. “We crossed that birch earlier.”

I looked where he pointed. The trunk was split down the middle, pal wood flashing through the bark like bone. He was right. I remembered it. I’d brushed my fingers against it when we first came through.

But it was in front of us again.

Zayn’s voice dropped low. “We’re walking in circles.”

Kael shook his head, scanning the trees. “No. I know this route.”

“Then explain why we’re back where we started.”

The two of them stared at each other, the argument barely restrained, but it didn’t matter. They both knew it. Something wasn’t

right.

The forest around us looked the same in every direction–same trees same uneven ground. The kind of sameness that started to feel wrong the longer you looked at it.

My stomach twisted. “Kael,” I said softly, “could it be… magic?”

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Chapter 165

He hesitated. “It’s possible.”

Zayn frowned. “You think the witch set something up? A barrier?”

Kael exhaled, slow and tight. “Maybe. But I’ve never seen anything like this.”

The silence pressed in again.

Zayn scanned the trees, jaw tense. “We’ll figure it out. Just don’t panic.”

I laughed once, too quiet, too sharp. “Little late for that.”

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He glanced at me, and for a second, the tension in his eyes softened. “Hey. We’ll get out. You’re not the only one with bad instincts

today.”

Kael crouched near a fallen branch, tracing something on the ground with his fingers. I moved closer, squinting.

Carved into the dirt–half–covered by leaves–was a symbol. A small circle, broken through the middle. The same one from the cabin

floor.

My breath caught. “That’s the same mark.”

“Someone wants us lost,” Kael said quietly.

Zayn’s gaze flicked through the trees again. “Or trapped.”

I looked back the way we’d come, but even that direction looked wrong now–shadows thicker, the air colder. My chest tightened.

Zayn stepped closer, his voice low enough for only me to hear. “Stay right by me, got it?”

I nodded. “Yeah.”

He didn’t move his hand from where it brushed my arm, and I didn’t ask him to.

Kael rose, eyes narrowing at the trees. “We’re not staying here. We keep moving. There has to be a break somewhere.”

But even as he said it, I could tell by the way his voice dropped–by the way his shoulders squared–that he didn’t quite believe it.

We started walking again.

And this time, the forest felt alive.

Not in a good way.

The deeper we went, the more the air shifted. The silence wasn’t silence anymore–it was a hum, low and constant, coming from

nowhere and everywhere at once. The kind of sound you don’t really hear until it’s under your skin.

Zayn’s hand brushed mine again. Kael slowed just enough to look back at me,

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Chapter 165

“You okay?” he asked.

I opened my mouth to answer–but something moved in the corner my vision.

A flicker.

Between the trees.

Not wind. Not shadow.

Something else.

At first, I thought I imagined it.

The flicker between the trees–soft, quick, like a shadow that hadn’t made up its mind whether to exist.

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