"You don't read it," Elara said, pressing a silver needle into his other hand. "You bleed into it."

He would not burn the map. He would let it burn through him.

"The map doesn't lead you to treasure," Elara said, her eyes reflecting the crimson glow. "It leads you to your death. The question is: will you walk the path, or will you burn it?"

That night, the howls started outside Arlo’s window. Not wolves. Something worse. Something with too many legs and a voice that sounded like his own mother’s scream. The map, now hidden beneath his shirt, grew warm against his chest. He could feel its pull, a gravitational hunger directing him toward the old cathedral.

The ritual was simple, which made it horrifying. A single prick of his thumb, a drop of blood falling onto the map’s center. Arlo expected a stain. Instead, the map drank .

And then he saw himself .