Ella’s POV
The fall felt endless.
Light. Shadow. Heat. Cold. They devoured each other as I plunged through them, like the world itself couldn’t decide whether I belonged to its darkness or its light. Every breath scraped my lungs raw, every heartbeat cracked against my ribs.
Then — silence.
I hit the ground with a force that should have shattered bone, but instead, the earth gave way beneath me like water. I sank into it, gasping, clawing my way up until my fingers broke through the surface of black soil.
The air that greeted me was thick, metallic — the scent of old blood and rain that had never touched sunlight.
Wherever I was, it wasn’t the mortal world anymore.
The trees above me were pale and colorless, their branches twisted into claws that reached for a starless sky. The moon
