The world did not rebuild after the scream.

It only held its breath.

Elaria lay suspended in the suspended not-space, a place where matter had never learned how to behave. Light curled around her like silk stripped of its memory, and every thread that touched her skin whispered a name she did not recognize yet felt like loss.

Her body was no longer falling.

It was remembering the shape of falling.

And somewhere far beyond her — or maybe within her — the echo of Kael and Draven’s fused ...