The world shattered around me, and I was falling through darkness with no end in sight.
The snow house crumbled into dust, the warmth faded from my skin, and the sound of Mia's voice echoed in my ears like a song that had been cut off in the middle of its final note. I reached for her, but my hands closed around nothing.
She was gone.
Then I hit the ground.
The cold stone of the laboratory floor pressed against my knees, hard and unforgiving, and the green torches on the walls flickered back into focus, casting their sickly light across the familiar nightmare of Voss's workspace.
The metal table was still there, stained with old blood and newer memories. The tubes and the vials and the tools were scattered across the trays, each one a reminder of everything that had happened in this place.
But my eyes were not on any of those things.
My eyes were on Tempest.
