Kael's POV
Darkness stretched around me, endless and suffocating.
Then I saw her.
A girl, caged in iron bars, her wrists and ankles bound by heavy chains. Tears streaked down her pale face, glinting like shards of glass under a weak beam of moonlight.
And she wasn't Aria.
My breath caught. It was Soraya.
Maya's friend.
The one who had been so infuriatingly rude at work, the one I'd promised myself I wouldn't think about.
She lifted her head slowly, her lips trembling as if every word cost her something.
"Help me," she whispered, her voice breaking, echoing through the dream like a cry from another world.
I froze, my mind spinning. Why was she here? Why was Soraya in chains?
"Help her, Kael."
I spun around.
"Mother?"
My mother, Remi, stood there, dressed in white, her eyes calm but filled with something that made my chest ache.
"Mother, where have you been?" My voice cracked, panic and longing mixing in my throat.
