Once Damon stepped through the portal, everything changed, the silence shifted. With a blink, everything had disappeared.
The arena, the Warden, the Abyss, all of it was gone. No more weightless stones floating in endless skies. No more clash of colliding realities. Instead, wooden floorboards creaked beneath his feet.
A breeze rustled thin curtains. The light outside his window was soft and golden, twilight, tinged with faint lavender. Familiar.
His room in the Dragon Clan He was back. Not some simulation or dream. No twisting void. No time-stretched labyrinth of thought.
Home.
But even then, Damon's instincts sharpened. He wasn't alone. There was a presence nearby, subtle, human, and utterly familiar.
He turned and spotted her.
Artemis.
Her back was to him, looking out the window toward the setting sun. Her hair shimmered in the light like strands of silver and moonfire, and her posture, rigid yet fragile, spoke volumes.
She hadn't heard him.
