A billionaire Hybrid, Blood and Starlight.

Pandora

Hayden’s POV

The cold stone floor pressed against my cheek, shockingly real after the nightmare realm. My lungs burned as I gasped for air, each breath a painful reminder that I was back, truly back, from… there. The cloying scent of decay still clung to the edges of my senses, making my stomach churn. My head throbbed, a relentless drumbeat against my skull.

Then, a warm hand was on my arm, gentle but firm.

“Hayden? Are you okay?” Dominic’s voice, devoid of its usual mocking edge, was surprisingly soft. He was kneeling beside me, his Violet eyes filled with concern. Emma, her face pale with worry, hovered just behind him. Annabelle appeared a moment later, a glass of water pressed into my trembling hand.

“Here, drink this.”

I gulped it down, the cool liquid a shock against my parched throat. All of them were looking at me, their gazes a mix of apprehension and desperate curiosity. They needed answers. I needed to give them, but the words felt trapped behind the horror of what I’d just witnessed.

“I’m… I’m not sure,” I whispered, my voice raspy. “I don’t know what I saw. It’s nothing like anything I’ve ever seen before. It’s like… like they’ve kept Sarena in some kind of Pandora’s Box. A twisted reality. As if she’s not even in this world.”

My mind raced, trying to piece together the fractured images. “I was in… a body. I thought it was Sarena’s, but… it wasn’t. It was wrong. So wrong.” The chill of that corrupted form still clung to me. “When I looked out of the window, the world looked… wrong. The moon looked wrong, The sky was a different shade of black, deeper, darker than night. The colors were all wrong, consumed with a kind of darkness that felt like… black magic. Corrupt magic. Not just night.”

I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to banish the lingering images of that desolate, diseased landscape. “And my hands… they looked different. Longer. Pointier. My skin was pale, almost translucent, with dark veins tracing beneath the surface. My hair was dark, matted, filthy. Everything about that body felt so tired and broken. So utterly disgusting.” I shuddered, remembering the revulsion. “But then… when I looked at my reflection in the windowpane, it was Sarena.”

The revelation still hit me with fresh horror. “It was her face. Gaunt, broken, with those vivid blue eyes, dulled and sunken, framed by matted gold hair.” My voice cracked. “Her soul. I felt like I found her soul, trapped in that… that thing I saw. In this other place that I still can’t figure out.”

They listened, silent, their expressions growing grimmer with every word. Dominic’s jaw was tight, his eyes distant as if processing the implications. Annabelle’s brow furrowed, her witch-sense undoubtedly reeling from the sheer strangeness of what I was describing.

“So… Sarena’s soul,” I continued, trying to make sense of the chaos in my head, “it’s not easy to track down because it’s… not here. It’s in that other place. That dark room, with those… those creatures.” The creatures. The pointed ears, the black veins, the diseased look. My gaze drifted back to Dominic. “Maybe… maybe we need to try and find her body.”

I turned to Annabelle, a flicker of renewed purpose piercing through the exhaustion. “Annabelle, is there… is there any way you can adjust the magic? To link me to her physical form, rather than her soul? See who’s holding her captive, or… what’s going on?”

Annabelle bit her lip, her gaze distant as she ran through possibilities. “It’s… uncharted territory, Hayden. Most locating spells are designed for a person’s essence. But if her soul is separated from her body, or trapped in a vessel… yes. It might be possible. It would require a different focus, a different weave of magic.” She looked at me, her eyes filled with determination. “And we’ll need you to be stronger for it. More rested.”

Dominic stood, a new resolve hardening his features. “Then that’s what we’ll do. Hayden, you rest. Annabelle, prepare the new spell. We need to figure out what this ‘other place’ is. Is it a magical illusion? A pocket dimension? Or does it… truly exist?”

The unspoken truth hung heavy in the air. That Edward, Edward Hexter, was far more dangerous, far more powerful, than any of us had imagined. Not just a mage, but a master of realms. And Sarena… my Hexter blood sister… was caught in his horrifying game.

As the morning light streamed through the mansion windows, a sense of grim determination settled over us. Tomorrow, we would dig deeper. Tomorrow, we would find a clue. And tomorrow, we would face whatever nightmare Edward had unleashed upon Sarena.