KAIA
The sensation is like plunging into ice-cold water, except I can still breathe. Everything goes dark for a heartbeat, then—
Light explodes around us, so bright I have to squeeze my eyes shut. When I open them again, the monastery is gone.
We're standing in a massive stone corridor. Gothic arches soar overhead, carved with intricate patterns that seem to move when I'm not looking directly at them. Torches burn in iron sconces along the walls, but the flames cast no smoke. The light they produce is wrong—too white, too pure, like moonlight concentrated into fire.
"Holy s**t," Talia breathes.
The architecture is impossible. Stairs lead in directions that shouldn't exist. Doorways open onto views of star-filled sky, even though we should be inside. In the distance, I can hear music—h
