Sera's Pov
The journey back to the fortress passed in a strange, stretching silence, the kind that made your ears ring like they were underwater. After somehow surviving the flight back, I sat in the passenger seat of the car we came in, arms crossed over my chest, but not from cold. Anxiety. My hands were still trembling.
It wasn't just the residual shock from the test—or dream, or vision, or whatever Elarion had done to us—it was that sky. That endless, star-laced void, split open like fragile glass, with that inky black crack spreading across it like a scar. It wasn't just ominous. It felt... familiar.
Plus Lucian… I didn't want to think about it. It wasn't real.
