CHAPTER 129Darkness wasn’t the absence of light. It was the thing that existed behind the lights or where the lights couldn’t reach. With the weight of it, pressing down until the world blurred into nothing but cold.Ophelia floated in it, too tired to swim, too weak to care. Her body, somewhere far away, was a broken thing. Every beat of her heart felt borrowed.The silence cracked.And then a whisper. It brushed her ear like wind across desert sand.“Little one.”She turned, or thought she did, and the void rippled to color. It may not have been the green and gold of her forest; it was ochre and deep amber, but it was a great reprieve from the unending darkness. The air smelled of dust and sun, and in the distance, mountains crowned with mist rose against a sky that burned at the edges.She heard the sound of footsteps approaching.A woman emerged from the shimmering horizon, barefoot in the sand, her black hair streaked with silver. Her eyes, gold, fierce, and familiar, studied Op
Last Updated : 2026-02-08 Read more