I woke to the sound of breaking glass.
Not violent shattering. Gentle, musical breaking. Like wind chimes made of crystal being brushed by a breeze that shouldn't exist.
My eyes opened slowly. Everything hurt. My hand where I'd driven it into the altar. My throat where the scars had torn. My chest where Astro's essence had merged with mine.
But I was alive.
I sat up carefully and immediately wished I hadn't.
The world had changed. Completely. Utterly. We weren't in the Den anymore. Weren't in the bone chambers or blood-soaked trials.
We were in a forest.
But not a normal forest. Every tree was made of glass.
Transparent trunks rising impossibly high, branches spreading overhead like frozen crystal. The leaves were glass too, each one perfectly formed, tinkling against each other in wind I couldn't feel.
And every surface reflected.
