AYLA'S POV
There was silence everywhere.
Not the heavy, suffocating silence of chains. Not the echoing silence of the First Luna's prison. This one was different.
It was… empty.
For a moment, I thought I was floating in water. My body felt weightless, every scar and ache erased. There was no fire crawling under my skin, no silver gnawing at my veins. Just quiet.
I opened my eyes—or maybe I only dreamed I did. Light stretched in every direction, endless, pale. The kind of light that didn't burn, didn't blind.
I should have felt relieved. But instead, dread crept in.
Is this what comes after?
A low sound rippled the light, faint and ragged, pulling me toward it. A heartbeat. Not mine.
Kael.
I turned—or drifted, or maybe just willed myself closer. The light shifted into shapes, into shadows, into flashes. Stone walls. Falling dust. Blood on his arms where my claws had torn him. His forehead pressed to mine, his lips moving against my skin.
