The air tasted wrong.
Not just heavy or stale, wrong.
Like the sky had cracked open, and Kyle had fallen into a place that shouldn't exist.
The ground beneath him was soft. Covered in a sea of red spider lilies that stretched far into the horizon.
Their petals were too bright, too sharp. Like someone had soaked them in fresh blood.
Above. The sky was fractured. Threads of Reds, purples, blues, light breaking like glass across an endless dusk.
And in the center of it all stood him.
A man in a long black coat.
Tall. Lean. Calm.
But not the kind of calm that brought peace.
No. This was the calm of a storm right before it hit. Cold. Silent. Absolute.
He stood there, hands in his coat pockets. Smiling like he already knew the ending of a story Kyle hadn't even started reading.
Kyle's grip tightened around Zalrielle's hilt.
Every part of his body screamed, run. But he stayed still.
This place. It felt too wrong. Like the laws of nature didn't apply here.
