Tyler’s body crashed into the earth, a jagged shock of pain shooting through his ribs. He gasped, disoriented, as the ground beneath him continued to tremble with the force of the rift’s awakening. The air was thick with an oppressive energy, like the weight of a storm pressing down on him. His pulse raced, his mind barely keeping up with the events unfolding around him.
“Amara!” he shouted, scrambling to his feet, but the sound of her voice—the urgency in it—still rang in his ears. His heart thudded painfully in his chest. He had to find her, had to reach her before it was too late. But where was she? The rift had swallowed her whole.
And then the darkness.
The shadows, thick and ever-shifting, loomed ahead of him, a swirling void that seemed to pulse with an eerie life of its own. The
