Aria's POV
The absence hits me like a physical blow when consciousness returns.
Where Victor's warmth should be pressed against my side, there's only cold morning air. Where his steady breathing should fill the silence, there's nothing but the whisper of wind through branches overhead. My fingers reach desperately across the crushed grass where his body had been, searching for any trace of him, but finding only dewdrops and earth.
Terror floods my veins.
"Victor?" The word scrapes from my throat, hoarse and desperate. I strain to hear any response, any sound that might tell me he's close by. But the forest offers nothing back except my own echo.
Panic rises in my chest as I struggle to sit upright, pulling my ceremonial robes tighter around my trembling frame. Every shifting shadow between the ancient trees transforms into a potential threat. My lungs refuse to fill properly, each breath coming shallow and quick. He swore he wouldn't abandon me. He gave me his word.
