🦋ALTHEAÂ
​I tried to push forward, but the air had turned to tar. The shadows weren't hurting me—they couldn't—but they were so dense that every step felt like wading through a sea of ice and stone.
​And Umbra was massive.
​Even if I reached him, what then? I was five-foot-nothing, barely a wisp of flesh and bone. Trying to reach Thorne through this was like screaming into a hurricane and expecting to be heard.
​"You cannot reach him like this," Zyra said. Her voice cut through my panic with an eerie calm. "You are too small. Too weak in this form."
​"Then what do I do?!" I screamed, my voice breaking.
​"Shift."
​The word hit me like a physical blow.
​"I can't," I gasped. "I don't know how. I've never—"
​"You have me now," Zyra interrupted. For the first time since she'd awakened, her voice wasn't cruel or mocking. It was almost... gentle. "I will guide you. But Althea—" Her tone sharpened. "It will not be pleasant."
