The belt crystals did not tear reality open.
They slid it aside.
Anna felt it the moment the pull became direction—like gravity turning its head. The river world folded inward, its sounds muffled, its drums swallowed mid-beat. Lexus’s hand tightened around hers, not in fear but in anchoring instinct.
“Stay with me,” he said.
“I am,” she replied—and meant it more deeply than she ever had before.
The crystal at her waist warmed, responding not just to the threshold but to them. Their bond hummed, low and intimate, like a shared breath. Then the world inverted gently, as if they were stepping through a reflection rather than a door.
When Anna opened her eyes, she smelled rain and oil.
Asphalt stretched beneath her boots. Streetlights flickered overhead, sodium-orange halos bleeding int
