The world was gone.
Or maybe it was still there, just… rewritten.
The forest that had once been alive with the sounds of crickets and the rustle of wind was now made of whispers and shifting mist. The air shimmered with something heavy—like grief and magic fused together. Every breath Aria took burned her throat, the taste of iron and smoke clinging to her tongue.
Her wolf stirred weakly inside her, the link between them faint, as though muffled by a wall of glass.
Killian… she tried to reach for him through the bond. But all she got was silence. The emptiness clawed at her chest.
Wherever she was, it wasn’t the mortal world. This was the Veil.
And it was alive.
The mist pulsed like veins, breathing, reacting to her heartbeat. Faint shapes moved within it—too fast, too wrong. She co
