Lyra's POV
We landed on nothing solid at all, and yet somehow we did not fall, my stomach still lurching from a drop that ended in no impact at all.
The space around us stretched endless in every direction, shadow folding over shadow like layers of smoke that refused to settle into anything solid. There was no ground beneath my feet, no sky above, just a shifting darkness that felt alive, watching, patient, like it had been waiting a very long time for exactly this moment.
Kael's hand stayed locked around mine, his grip the only thing that felt real in a place built entirely out of shadow.
"Where are we?" he asked, his voice swallowed strangely by the emptiness, sounding smaller than it should have.
"I do not know." I turned in a slow circle, searching for any kind of landmark, and f
