POV: Aria
That night, sleep didn’t come. Not easily.
When it did, it pulled me under like a riptide—no softness, no peace. Just the sensation of falling, deeper and deeper, until the world around me no longer resembled anything real.
The glade was gone.
I stood inside a field of bones, stretching endlessly into fog. The sky above me was gray, pulsing, as if the heavens themselves had veins. Wind howled without direction, and the air smelled like smoke and forgotten memories.
My wolf stood across from me.
Or rather—what remained of her.
She was fractured, like cracked glass held together by magic alone. One eye gleamed gold, the other was dark and hollow. Her fur was patchy, scorched in places, rippling with shadow.
“You gave me away,” she said, but her voice echoed with mine.
I f
