BLAKE’S P.O.V
The darkness didn’t last long.
At first, it was nothing, silence, heavy and suffocating, like I had fallen into a pit with no bottom. Then, a sound began to creep through the dark. Slow. Hollow. Like whispers echoing inside my skull. They weren’t words. Just noise. Distant at first, then louder.
And then came the pain.
Every nerve in my body lit up at once. My lungs refused to work. My heartbeat pounded like a hammer against my ribs. I gasped for air and choked on something cold. It wasn’t water. It felt like breathing in frost and smoke.
When I finally forced my eyes open, I realized I was still in the Veil.
Only now, it looked worse.
The air shimmered, bending the world around me like I was staring through boiling water. The ground pulsed faintly under my hands, aliv
