Tyla’s POV
The world reassembled around us in pieces.
Not gently.
Not slowly.
Like someone was stitching reality back together with shaking hands, dragging threads of color and sound and breath into place while the universe screamed beneath their touch.
Arthur’s arms were the first thing I recognized. Solid. Warm. Trembling around me as we fell through blinding gold. His heartbeat hammered against my cheek, wild and terrified.
Then the air returned—
cold, sharp, returning in stuttering waves.
The ground slammed into us a moment later.
Not the white realm.
Not the void.
Not the moon.
Earth.
We hit it hard.
Arthur rolled instantly, twisting so his body took the impact, his arm clamping around the back of my head to shield it as we crashed through the underbrush of a forest. Lea
