Damon's POV
Darkness swallowed everything. No pain, no sound, no scent, only endless black.
Damon... The voice echoed through the void.
"Rhein?" Silence.
Then the world exploded into white.
Snow. Ice. A freezing wind tore across my face, and I couldn't breathe. My body was trapped beneath tons of snow.
Every broken bone burned. Blood soaked into the ice beneath me.
I knew this place. Five years ago. The avalanche.
We're dying, Rhein rasped inside my head.
"I know."
I tried to move. Nothing. "So... this is the end..."
Then a sweet scent cut through the storm.
Rhein froze.
Footsteps. Someone was approaching, stumbling through the snow toward me.
"No!" A voice screamed my name. "Damon!"
My heart lurched. It was Aria, not Claudia. Aria.
She collapsed beside me, tears freezing o
