Delilah’s Pov
I didn’t know where I was.
The air was thicker here, colder, humming with a strange weight that pressed against my skin. When the light spat me out of that portal, I landed on hard ground—only to find myself standing in front of a house so massive, so impossible, it made Malric’s mansion look small. Almost bigger. Almost alive.
My heart stuttered. What is this place?
I took a step, then another, calling out into the silence. “Hello? Is anyone here? Please, I… I think I’m lost!”
Nothing answered me.
The silence was maddening. My voice echoed back at me, swallowed by walls of shadows and the looming structure ahead. I spun around, desperate, searching for that blue shimmer, the portal…but it was gone. No trace of it. My only way home had vanished.
Panic coiled in my sto
