POV: Nixie
"Darkness wasn't empty
There was a pulse.
I floated in it, weightless, caught in a warm, pulsating, almost alive mass. This enveloped my skin like smoke with a pulse, like shadows that breathed. With every pulse, I let myself sink further, a vibration thrummed through me, steady, shielding, overwhelmingly familiar.
A chest.
I found myself pushed against a chest.
My thoughts jerked back into place or tried to. That was followed by a shot of pain sharp enough to catch my breath. Memories came rushing back then: the scream of a Riftborn, a flash of blinding light, Silas shouting my name, my legs buckling and supportive arms that caught me before I landed.
These are the arms that held me.
I willed my eyes open, but everything in the world was a soft, focusless haze. A dim, a
