The world went white.
A searing, blinding light swallowed everything, and for a heart-stopping moment, Isla felt herself ripped from the earth, suspended in a void where sound, time, and even thought no longer existed. It was as though the very threads of reality had unraveled, leaving nothing but endless, suffocating brightness. Her limbs floated weightlessly, her heartbeat the only tether to existence. Then it shattered. Like glass breaking in reverse, the light receded, retreating into the depths from which it came, leaving the clearing in smoldering ruin.
Isla’s body hit the ground hard, the impact jarring her bones and stealing the air from her lungs. Her ears rang, a shrill, merciless sound that drowned out everything else. Vision swimming with dark spots, she struggled to focus. T
