Liam's P.O.V.
I didn't have time to process what happened. One moment, I was standing in the center of an angry crowd—everything felt like it was closing in on me—and then the next, the world seemed to collapse around me.
Darkness.
Weightlessness.
Cold air wrapped around me, pulling at my skin, and my stomach twisted like I had been turned inside out. My ears rang with a high-pitched hum, my breath catching in my throat. The world around me blurred into streaks of black and silver, like a storm caught in a bottle. My body didn't feel like my own—like I had been stretched thin, unraveling into nothingness—
And then—
Solid ground.
The cold air hit me first—the familiar, damp chill of the cave, the one I didn't think I'd see again. My vision swam as I tried to steady myself, blinking at the flickering glow of torches along the stone walls. The cave smelled like fire and pine, like her.
Mai still had my hand.