The wraiths' laughter followed them as they fled the impossible court, but the sound faded into something far worse silence that pressed against Selena's mind like a physical weight. Each step away from the ethereal throne room brought her closer to a precipice she could no longer pretend didn't exist. The doubt the wraiths had planted grew with each heartbeat, feeding on itself until it became a roar that drowned out everything else.
The Gate's power had been stirring restlessly throughout their encounter with the Wraith Court, but now it surged with sudden violence. The alien presence that had become as familiar as her own heartbeat suddenly felt foreign again, invasive, hungry in ways that made her soul recoil. It pressed against the barriers she had built around her consciousness, testing them with the patience of something that had eternity to work with.
