Tyler’s heart pounded as the figure before him loomed, her eyes glowing with an ethereal light. He could feel the change in the air, a heavy, oppressive energy that seemed to vibrate through every fiber of his being. The woman standing before him—Amara—wasn’t the person he had known. The warmth that had once radiated from her was now replaced by an icy coldness that made his skin crawl.
She wasn’t herself.
Her eyes, once full of life and warmth, were now deep pools of shadow, her pupils dilated as though she were no longer fully aware of her own actions. Her hair, once a rich cascade of dark waves, now shimmered with an unnatural sheen, as if touched by the very fabric of the rift itself. The air around her crackled with the same energy that had been swirling within the rift moments befo
