~ Seraphina’s POV ~
I drifted.
Somewhere between flame and shadow.
I wasn’t sure if I was dead.
Or if death was kinder than this.
A vast, numbing emptiness stretched endlessly around me, cold and suffocating. The only thing I felt was a distant, steady pull… like a thread tying me to something… or someone.
A voice.
Deep. Rough. Cursing under his breath.
Calling my name like a prayer he had no right to offer.
Alaric.
I clung to it. To him. To the warmth in the darkness, even as another voice… softer, familiar brushed against my mind.
‘Fight, Seraphina. You can't let the darkness win. You have to do it.’
It was Lyra, my wolf, her voice faint and strained, as though she too was trapped somewhere beyond reach.
‘I can’t…’ I whispered into the void.
‘Yes, you can. You are no longe
