HELENA POV
There was no light when I opened my eyes, and there was no darkness either, only an expanse so complete and depthless that it felt less like a place and more like the absence of one. It did not press against me and it did not recede from me. It simply existed, endless and patient, like it had been waiting for me to arrive.
For a suspended stretch of awareness I did not know whether I had survived or finally burned myself into something unrecognizable.
I searched for pain first, because pain would have meant a body, and a body would have meant breath, and breath would have meant I could still return to him.
There was nothing.
No ache in my ribs where the sun had torn through me.
No tremor in my muscles.
No lingering burn under my skin.
Worse than that, there was no heat.
