SERAPHINA’S POV
I didn’t understand how Alina did it.
One moment, I was beneath the open sky, my new body trembling with unfamiliar instincts, the ocean roaring against the shore.
The next, everything around me shifted in a way that defied distance and logic.
There was a tightening sensation deep inside my chest, as though something invisible had gripped the thread of my existence and pulled.
The world blurred.
Sand dissolved into shadow.
Salt air collapsed into cold, familiar earth.
And when my vision steadied again, I was standing upright, human again.
Barefoot on stone pavement that I instantly recognized.
The air was colder here. Heavier. Real in a way the Maldives had started to feel less and less like.
I stumbled, my hands instinctively pressing against my own arms as if to confirm I was truly back inside myself.
My breath came unevenly, and for a moment I thought I might fall again, caught between two versions of existence that refused to settle.
