The world slammed back into place in a violent rush of color and cold.
I hit the stone floor hard enough that the breath punched from my lungs. My knees buckled. My vision split in two—one half still seeing the creature’s jagged maw closing around me, the other grasping the lantern‑lit chamber I had been dragged into.
My stomach heaved.
The echo of the creature’s roar still vibrated in my bones.
Fen’s hand was locked around my arm like a shackle—burning, unyielding, as though he feared I might slip through reality itself if he let go.
“Breathe,” Fen said, voice low and carved from iron.
He knelt in front of me. Too close. His eyes blazed that unnatural, winter‑frost blue that meant he wasn’t calm—not even remotely.
I sucked in a ragged breath, then another, pressing a shaking hand t
