A large fire pit burned brightly, weathered stones circling the flames exactly as Winnie described. Beyond it stood a larger cottage built of dark stone and timber. An older man sat upon a weathered wooden bench and beside him stood Kaelan.
Relief struck her so suddenly she nearly stopped walking altogether.
Kaelan looked focused on what the older man was saying, yet the moment she stepped past the fire pit his attention turned instantly toward her. As though some part of him had sensed her presence. Or perhaps, it was what he wanted to believe when it was her footfalls he heard.
The moment that Kaelan saw her expression, he moved toward her without hesitation. His hand closed gently around hers before she could speak.
“Bria.”
Instantly warmth spread through her, followed almost immediately by something deeper and far more unsettling.
Concern.
His worry for her settled hard enough inside her chest that she nearly staggered beneath the strength of it. She jerked lightly against the feeling, pushing it away before it could settle deeper within her.
Not now.
Right now, she did not want to feel him. She did not want comfort. She only wanted… “I want to leave.”
The words rushed from her before either could speak.
Concern deepened in Kaelan’s eyes. “Bria?—”
“I have had enough of Driochmor.” Her voice tightened despite her efforts to steady it. “Enough strange talk and half answers and people claiming to know things about me that cannot possibly be true.”
Several nearby villagers glanced discreetly toward them before quickly pretending not to listen.
Bria cared little. She folded her arms tightly across herself as though holding the confusion together by force alone. “I want to return home to Willowmere.”
“That might not be possible,” Kilham said.
Bria turned to him. “Why not?”
Kilham regarded her calmly beneath thick silver brows. “You may leave only if Driochmor allows it.”
The strange certainty in the elder’s voice instantly deepened her frustration.
“What does that even mean?” she demanded.
Kilham made no effort to soften the answer. “The forbidden land decides who remains and who leaves.”
Bria stared at him in disbelief. “Land does not make choices.”
“Driochmor does.”
The quiet conviction in his words unsettled her enough that she looked instinctively toward Kaelan.
What disturbed her most was that he did not appear surprised.
Her brow furrowed sharply. “You know of this?”
“I know Driochmor is unlike other lands.”
“That explains nothing,” she said, frustrated at responses that held no answers.
Kilham rose slowly from the bench then, the movement carrying more strength than his years suggested possible. “Many who enter Driochmor believe they may simply walk back out whenever they choose.” His gaze shifted briefly toward the dark forest surrounding the village. “Some discover otherwise.”
Bria felt unease stir hard within her chest now. “What do you mean, otherwise?”
