Kayla
Darkness gave way to… fog?
I blinked, trying to focus, but the mist was so dense I could barely see my hand in front of my face. The pain in my abdomen was gone, replaced by an eerie numbness. I was no longer being cradled against Noah’s chest, but rather standing somewhere… new.
This wasn’t the Nightshade estate. This wasn’t the hospital. This was… somewhere else entirely.
I was standing in the middle of a forest, surrounded by towering trees whose tops disappeared into the swirling mist above. No sounds of the Revelry reached me here—no drums, no laughter, no howls. Just silence.
Was I dead?
“Hello?” I called, my voice sounding strange and muffled in the dense fog. “Is anyone there?”
For a long moment, there was no response, and I began to panic. I was
