KIERAN’S POV
The moment I crossed the threshold, the world…yielded.
That was the only way I could describe it.
There was no violent shift, no disorienting collapse of space the way I had half-expected after watching Sera disappear from my side.
Instead, the darkness beneath the hollow seemed to part around me, unfolding in a way that felt less like entry and more like acknowledgment.
I immediately felt Sera’s absence.
Not just physically, but in that deeper way I had grown used to—her presence brushing against my awareness, steady and grounding.
It vanished the instant I crossed the threshold, leaving behind a silence that was too clean to be natural.
For a brief moment, instinct urged me to reach out, to find her, to confirm where she was—
But I stopped myself.
This place was not built to be navigated by instinct alone, and forcing my way through it blindly would get me nowhere.
