Chapter 117
Kaeleen's POV
I pushed the door open and stepped into a room that was no longer my own. The familiar scent of jasmine and old books had been replaced by something else entirely the cloying sweet scent of plumeria and the sharp, clean smell of salt and ozone, as if a storm from a distant ocean had been captured within these four walls. The air was thick and heavy, humming with a residual energy that made the hairs on my arms stand on end.
Leilani stood by the bed, her shoulders slumped slightly with a weariness that seemed to go bone-deep. Elara followed me in, her face a roadmap of anxiety, while Lila hovered nervously at the threshold.
My eyes went straight to Astrid. She lay perfectly still, a stark figure against the white linen. Leilani had wiped her brow, and in the soft lamplight, she looked less like a woman sleeping and more like a figure carved from pale marble. Beautiful, perfect, and terrifyingly lifeless.
