The world did not end with a bang, nor with the agonizing crunch of bone she had expected when the Stone's light first surged into her marrow. Instead, it ended with a sudden, vacuum-like silence that felt as though the very concept of sound had been erased from existence. One moment, Verona was pinned to the cold, damp stone of the secret chamber, her hand fused to the jagged violet crystal; the next, the sensation of weight, gravity, and even the smell of damp earth vanished.
Verona gasped, but no air entered her lungs. Or rather, she didn't seem to need air.
She was standing in a space that defied every law of the physical world she had ever known. It was a vast, infinite expanse of brilliant, blinding white. There was no horizon, no sky, and no floor. She stood firmly as if on a sheet of polished glass, yet when she looked down, there was nothing but more endless, shimmering light beneath her boots.
