The cold disappeared. For one beautiful, impossible heartbeat, everything disappeared with it.
There was no pain, chains, Dark Fae, Vaelor, Morrigan, or an endless palace built from black stone and older nightmares.
She felt only warmth.
Aire smiled before she even opened her eyes.
It worked. It actually worked. Her body continued falling through endless silver light, yet she no longer felt afraid.
She could still hear Alaric. He no longer spoke, but she still heard him in her heart. He had reached her.
The bond still pulsed faintly inside her chest like a heartbeat that wasn't entirely her own.
Home.
The word echoed through every corner of her mind. She pictured the Wolf Realm. The towering mountains covered in flowers.
The forests that smelled of rain, and the rivers she'd crossed barefoot as a child.
She laughed in delight. It came out broken, soft, and wet with tears. Her heart almost exploded with excitement and positive anxiety.
"I'm coming..."
