Aria pov :
Time in the Obsidian Citadel did not flow like normal time. In the freezing, windowless tower of the dark fortress, seconds stretched into agonizing hours, and hours felt like an eternity of suffocating isolation.
I paced the perimeter of the circular stone room, my bare feet completely numb against the jagged black floor. I refused to sit. I refused to touch the cold stew resting on the wooden table. Every single fiber of my being was entirely focused on the microscopic, invisible tether buried deep within my mind.
I closed my eyes, leaning my forehead against the freezing obsidian wall. I pushed my consciousness entirely outward, gathering every ounce of my Wolf's pure, shimmering silver energy, and I violently hurled it against the suffocating barrier of dark magic surr
