VALERIE
It was the warmth I noticed first.
Soft fingers brushing my cheek. The faint scent of pine and ash. A heartbeat — not mine — pulsing close to my skin. My eyes fluttered open to blurred light. My limbs felt like stone, heavy and distant. My breath caught on a phantom ache in my ribs. I was lying in someone’s arms.
Jason.
His golden eyes were rimmed red, his jaw clenched as if letting go of me would break him. “You’re awake,” he whispered, like he didn’t believe it. I tried to speak. My lips cracked. “Water,” Dorian’s voice said from nearby. Then coolness touched my mouth. I drank slowly, shaking. My magic stirred beneath my skin — fractured, thin, like thread unraveling in a storm. Everything inside me felt… quiet. Too quiet.
The soul chamber had faded. We were in the physical
