Ian's POV
I woke up gasping.
Air burned down my throat, but it wasn’t the metallic tang of a train tunnel where I had died in my world, or the stifling incense of Ava’s shrine - it was fresh. Pine-laced. Cold. My back pressed into damp earth, and when I opened my eyes.
I sat up fast, and froze.
My clothes... they were gone.
I was completely naked.
“s**t!” I scrambled to cover myself, scanning the forest in horror. But there was no one. Just dark trees. Dense bushes.
Crows cawed overhead. The obsidian trees stretched like skeletal fingers into a sky that was-
Purple. Bright. Too bright.
Recognition slammed into me.
“That sky…” I whispered. “The same one from Silwyn Woods.”
My throat tightened. “s**t. I’m still in Torguyl?”
The realization spread through me like ice.
