Light consumed her.
Not warmth, not brilliance—just light, thick as molten glass, wrapping around her until she could no longer feel the air. Her lungs worked but found nothing. Her heart thudded once, twice, and then
She was standing.
The world was wrong.
A sky of deep violet rolled above her, moonlight pouring through clouds as if searching for something it had lost. Beneath her feet stretched a field of black sand, warm as embers, each grain catching a flicker of gold fire that vanished when she looked directly at it. The horizon bent in impossible ways, like a reflection on rippling water.
The air smelled of storms and burnt cedar. Kael's scent. It tugged at her chest like a thread she couldn't see.
She took a step forward, and the sand gave way without sinking. Her body felt lighter here, but her thoughts were heavy, drawn backward—toward the outpost, toward the sight of him shaking under the storm, toward the priestess's warning.
Lose the magic, lose him.
