The world was consumed in blinding white light. Even the ground dropped out beneath my feet, leaving me weightless, all sound vanishing in a faint ringing.
My eyes fluttered at the wind whispering through my hair, and I gasped, but no air filled my lungs. I tried to scream, but my throat felt full of cotton, not a single sound escaping my lips. Beyond the searing pain in my chest, relief washed through me as another sensation returned—a gentle pull on my body, tugging me somewhere. It was better than that horrible, disorienting weightlessness, that feeling of being adrift in nothingness. At least now I knew I was—
I screamed in terror as the realization hit. I was falling. I couldn't hear the sound over the ringing in my ears, couldn't see anything through the blinding white, but the rush of wind past my face, the relentless pull of gravity, and the sickening lurch in my stomach were undeniable. What had happened to the ship? I hadn't even been near the edge!
