POV: Nixie
Falling felt wrong.
Not terrifying—just wrong, like my body had forgotten the rules it was supposed to follow.
The light swallowed us whole, silver and blinding yet strangely warm. I clung to Lyall’s arm, my fingers digging in, scared that if I loosened my grip for even a moment, I would be ripped away from him and lost below.
His other arm wrapped around me tightly, solid and unyielding.
“I’ve got you,” he said again, his voice low and steady, close to my ear. “I won’t let go.”
His words settled me.
The fall slowed.
Not gradually, but suddenly, as if something beneath us had noticed. The pull shifted from violent to controlled. My feet brushed against stone and then found it—solid ground, warm beneath my boots, pulsing faintly with power.
Lyall landed first, absorbing
