Aria’s POV
Falling felt familiar.
Cold air. Stone scraping my back. The Moonstone’s light dying in my hand as the earth swallowed me.
I hit water.
It knocked the breath out of me, icy and sharp, but it stopped the fall. For a second, all I could hear was my own heartbeat and the distant sound of stone collapsing above.
“Darian!” I choked out, spitting water. No answer. Just the bond, frayed and stretched thin, humming with panic and rage.
He was alive. Above. Not with me.
Good.
I kicked, dragging myself toward the edge of the pool. My arms felt like lead. The Moonstone was cracked, half its light gone, pulsing erratically against my chest like a dying heartbeat.
The chamber I’d landed in wasn’t part of the temple I knew.
No collapsed arches. No dust.
This pla
