One moment, her whole soul had been there—battered, yes, but intact for the most part, slowly regenerating the parts siphoned by the Wraith.
It had cradled her through the torment, offering flickers of warmth: the memory of a gentle hand on her shoulder beneath foreign stars, laughter blooming in the hush between battles, promises spoken not as hopes, but truths.
That presence had been her last shield. Fragile. Sacred.
It was a tether to something unbroken, something still hers in the midst of the nightmare.
And then, it was gone, torn from her spirit as if it had never belonged.
What remained was nothing but shredded tatters—an exposed, weeping nerve, scouring raw through every corner of her being. It shattered what was left of her composure, her sanity.
Her mate was dead.
Manic laughter erupted from her throat as the truth hit, rattling through the orb, high and broken, bouncing off the translucent walls in shrill, looping echoes. And the Wraith flinched.
She wouldn’t be able to avenge her mate, but it didn’t matter. On the other side, their two halves would be joined once again. She would see him again soon.
At least, this torture would soon be ending.
With his death, the bond they shared would be severed completely, releasing her from this hell. Death would come at last.
But it did not end. The orb fulfilled its purpose with ruthless efficiency, keeping her alive while the Wraith continued to feast.
She sagged in the restraints as what little remained of her essence strained to rejoin what had been taken, reaching for its other half.
But the orb held it in place, trapped within her body. And when it failed, it fell.
Her soul drifted down through her like ash caught in gravity, trailing flickers of what once was—peace, memory, light—until even that faded. It sank to the deepest part of her, hiding. And there, it stayed, curling in on itself, decaying inch by inch.
What had been pure turned fetid. Its fractured root system buried into her core where itwaited,silent and ruined, seeping venom through every breath, every beat.
Exposed tissue twitched deep inside her, spasming with no relief. Her nerves fired in endless succession, stripped raw and screeching. And at her center, a cavity yawned open—wide, wet, and gouged too deep—that swallowed everything and kept digging.
It was an endless snarl, boiling in her stomach.
The orb may have kept her alive. But Rhynna, and everything she had been, ceased to exist.
She would escape. Not today. Not whole. But one day. And when she did, she would find the one who condemned her to this. She would tear truth from flesh, name from bone.
And if a few worlds burned along the way, so be it.
Let them feel her pain. Let themchokeon it.
She’d lived hundreds oflifetimes since the Earth burned, and it was always the same. Another world on the edge of annihilation. The desperate struggle to save it. Death, though never hers. Destruction. Then on to the next with no memories of the people or places left behind. It was both her punishment and her path to something like redemption.
Chapter one
Theworldbrokeitselfapart behind her.
Light shattered. Noise fractured. Her body stretched thin between worlds as the wormhole flung her through time and space, stripping her down to pieces.
Faces burned across her vision—
A girl laughing with blood on her cheeks.
A man’s hand, fingers severed, reaching through smoke.
Red banners flaring in the sky.
