"Val."
There is only black.
Not the kind that comes with night, but the kind that eats light alive. It stretches in every direction, vast and endless, and it breathes like a living thing. The air is thick with it. My feet find no ground, yet I stand.
"Val."
It is a summon, slamming into the edge of my mind, over and over, so that it is all I hear from within the belly of that darkness.
"Val."
Lucien.
I turn in a circle, breathing hard, searching, but I cannot find him, cannot follow it, when it has no direction. It is everywhere. Beneath. Above. Around. Inside. I call for him, but the darkness swallows the sound, and the sound of his voice ceases altogether.
I pant. I feel like I have been running for a while. My lips are parched with a thirst, my heart in a constant, painful race. How did I get here? What was I running from? What is this place?
Something wraps around my ankle. And yanks me down.
