Maya's POV

Darkness presses against my consciousness like water, but fragments pierce through—memories bleeding into visions, past colliding with present. My body lies somewhere distant, broken by demon claws, but my mind drifts backward through decades.

'Where am I?'

The question dissolves as another time claims me.

FLASHBACK

'Maya! Maya, wait for me!'

Small feet pound across marble floors as seven-year-old Layla chases after me through the corridors of ...