I woke to red.
Not the red of the thread connecting me to Astro. Not the red of blood or fire or Luna's mark. This was the red of dawn. A blood-red sky stretching endlessly above me, heavy with clouds that looked like they were bleeding.
I tried to sit up and pain lanced through my entire body. My arm. My throat. My wrists where the thread had burned. Everything hurt in ways that felt both familiar and new.
Where am I?
The thought pushed through the red thread automatically. Pain flared immediately, the connection burning where it wrapped around my wrist. But no answer came back.
I forced myself upright and looked around.
I wasn't in the White Den anymore. Wasn't in the Pool chamber. Wasn't anywhere I recognized.
The ground beneath me was made of ash. Gray and fine, it shifted when I moved, revealing glimpses of bone underneath. Not scattered bones. A foundation of bones, all fused together into a floor that stretched in every direction.
