Chapter 7
Aron seemed to hang in the vast vacuum of darkness for a measureless time. His senses were gone, shut down or erased. Only the most shadowy fragment of self remained. He clung to that, one small spark of will seeking an exit, a release, a doorway back into existence. Any ability to direct his passage seemed to be gone. Right now, it did not matter where he ended up—he only wanted to see, feel and be again.
When the time came, he almost regretted his fierce instinct to survive. He broke though into a freezing, soggy, miserable somewhere. For a time, he just lay where he’d landed, aching in every atom of his body, cold, battered and raw. He felt as if he’d been flayed alive, as if every major bone had been shattered and a crushing weight of contempt flattened him into the feature
