The sensation of falling was not like dropping from a height; it was like being dissolved into cold, viscous ink. The air was ripped from my lungs as the shimmering silver light of my transformation was snuffed out by a suffocating, absolute darkness. I reached out, my fingers clawing at a vacuum where Darian’s strength and Ryker’s desperation had been only a heartbeat before.
*“Be still, little spark,”* the ancient voice hissed inside my mind, no longer a whisper but a deafening roar that vibrated through my very atoms. *“The Alphas fight for a shadow. You are entering the true light.”*
I hit a surface that felt like frozen glass. I gasped, the frigid air burning my throat as I scrambled to my feet. I wasn't in the forest anymore. I was in a place where the sky was a bruised purple and
