Adina's POV

At first there was only darkness. Not the peaceful kind and not the kind that lets you rest.

This one felt sticky like tar clinging to my limbs, holding me down every time I tried to rise. I floated in it, weightless but trapped, listening to distant echoes: shouts, magic cracking, Nathan’s voice breaking like thunder in my mind.

Then something changed. The darkness shuddered.

A thread of warmth slid across my consciousness, small at first, fragile like the first flicker of a ...