POV: Asher Nightshade.
The mountain swallowed us whole.
The moment Akira and I stepped toward the paths, the ground trembled and split us apart—not with violence, but inevitability. One blink, and she was gone. No scream. No flash of light. Just... gone.
The path before me shimmered, a corridor of jagged stone and whispering dark. I stepped forward.
THE TRIAL.
The world bent around me. I walked through memory, not earth—rooms from my childhood flickered past, voices echoing. I think the face that flickered belonged to my mother. She sat on my bed singing me soft lullaby. My father’s command. Blood on snow. Flames rising from a burning village.
I walked through all of it.
Through the faces I failed.
Through the moment I turned away when I should’ve stood tall.
Through the weight of
