I did not hit the ground.
I kept falling.
Darkness swallowed me whole, thick and suffocating, stripping away sound, light—time itself. My stomach lurched as if the world had turned inside out, and the silver glow that had protected me flickered weakly, struggling to exist here.
This place rejects you, a whisper hissed.
My body slammed into something cold and unyielding.
Pain exploded through my spine, ripping a scream from my throat as I skidded across stone and came to a brutal stop. For a long moment, I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think. Couldn’t even feel where my body ended and the darkness began.
Then sensation returned—slow and cruel.
Blood trickled down my arm, warm against the chill of the ground. My lungs burned as I dragged in a shuddering breath and forced myself to move.
