Chapter 182

OLIVIA’S POV The forest was quiet. Too quiet. The kind of silence that presses against your ears and makes your own heartbeat feel like thunder. Leaves crackled beneath my bare feet, each step leaving a blackened trail behind me. The earth hissed under my touch, smoke curling up from every place I fell or brushed against. My legs shook. My body trembled. I didn’t know how long I’d been running. Or if I was running from something… …or trying to stop myself from becoming something. My breath came in ragged bursts. I could hear it echoing—too loud, too fast, too inhuman. My chest ached, my hands were burned and blistered, yet they glowed with threads of light just beneath the surface. My veins weren’t red. They were gold. Burning hot and searing with every pulse. The Phoenix Mark wasn't a symbol anymore. It was alive. I stumbled into a clearing, finally collapsing against a mossy rock, only for the moss to shrivel and turn to ash beneath me. I pulled back, horrified. My stomach twisted. W