Ella's POV
The world had no walls here. Only shadows that breathed.
I didn’t know how long I had been here — minutes, hours, or days. Time dissolved in this place, like ink bleeding into black water.
Every breath I took burned cold, and every thought I tried to hold onto slipped through my fingers like smoke.
The witches had vanished after they brought me. They’d dragged me through a portal of lightless air, chanting words that clung to my skin like frostbite. When I awoke, I was alone — or so I thought.
Now, I wasn’t sure.
Something watched me. Something ancient.
“Guardian of Light…”
The voice was neither male nor female. It was a thousand voices, layered atop one another, murmuring inside my skull. It slid through my mind like silk and ash.
I froze. My heartbeat echoed too lou
