Ash’s POV
Inside the Mark Realm
The first thing I felt was cold.
Not the kind that bit at skin or burrowed into bone—those were mortal sensations. This was deeper. Older. Cold that came from nonexistence, from stepping into a place that had never been meant to hold life.
It welcomed me like a grave.
My body hit the ground—or something pretending to be ground—hard enough to crack bone. But pain didn’t behave normally here. It echoed through me as if time itself lagged behind. It hurt late. Too late. Like the realm needed a moment to remember what pain was.
I pushed myself up, vision swimming.
The world around me was… wrong.
A sky with no stars, only silver streaks like claw marks ripping through endless night. Rivers of light flowing upward instead of down. Shadows that moved withou
