KAEL'S POV
The fall wasn't physical.
It felt like being unmade. Every heartbeat stretched into eternity, every breath into dust. The world inverted, then folded in on itself until I wasn't sure if I was standing or burning alive.
Then — silence.
Snow no longer fell. The ground beneath me wasn't stone or ice but something like glass, reflecting a thousand shifting versions of the same landscape. Forests burning. Moons shattering. Ayla kneeling in every one.
My pulse pounded in my ears.
"Ayla!"
The sound carried strangely, echoing too many times, overlapping until I couldn't tell if it was me or a memory calling her name.
Then a whisper: "You shouldn't have followed."
Her voice. But not.
I turned.
Ayla stood a few paces away — or rather, what looked like her. She was barefoot, her hair loose and white against the dark. Her eyes glowed gold, cold and still. Shadows clung to her like a second skin.
"You're not her," I said.
