The transition from consciousness was like being pulled through thick, dark honey. When I finally drifted awake, I wasn't met by the familiar, cold stone walls of the castle walls or the faint smell of flour from my old life.
Instead, I was in another room entirely. It was unfamiliar, bathed in a warm, amber glow that felt like a physical embrace.
For a moment, I lay still, my heart hammering a slow, steady rhythm against my ribs. I didn't recall ever being here. A flash of memory sparked—the burning forest, the heat, the chaos—and I wondered if this was another dream. But the sheets beneath me were too real, a high-thread-count silk that felt like water against my skin. The room was decorated in soft, cream tones with gold accents that caught the morning light flooding through floor-to-
