Only the cold.
The force of it swallowing me whole.
It had dragged me under, spun me, stolen every sense of up or down. I’d felt nothing but blind panic.
There was no air. No light. Just the crushing weight of the current.
Somehow — luck, instinct, desperation — my hand had snagged on a branch. I clung to it while the river tried to rip me free, battered and dragged downstream until the current finally spat me out.
Now I lay on the riverbank, soaked, shivering, rocks biting into my palms.
The night was silent.
No Sy.
No city.
No idea which direction led back to the compound.
Only the sound of the river moving past me like nothing had happened.
I pushed myself upright, fingers slipping on wet stone. My gloves had been ripped off in the current.
“Sy!” I called into the dark, my voice shaking in the cold.
The trees gave me nothing back.
I took a step toward the woods and pain flared through me so hard my vision pulsed white. My whole body felt like I’d been thrown into a meat grinder and stitched back together wrong.
I lifted a hand to my head.
It came away slick.
Blood.
“Shit,” I breathed.
The cut throbbed deep and heavy, like something had cracked open beneath it. My balance tilted sideways for a second before the world steadied again.
Bad. That’s bad.
I turned slowly, looking both ways along the river.
Water. Endless water. Black and rushing.
The Aurelion ran clear across Velithra.
Which meant I could be anywhere.
I stumbled forward through the trees, fingers hooking into branches to keep myself upright.
Each step made the world tilt harder.
A light breeze brushed across my face.
Ash.
“Tell him where I am,” I whispered hoarsely. “Please.”
