Pressure held Elias from every side.
He drifted in a warm dark that felt less like sleep and more like being stored. No surface. No floor. No body loud enough to interrupt him. The place shielded his mind from the constant demands of Veyren's infant brain.
Dots floated beside him.
Her ladybug wings stayed tucked tight against her back. Blue light held on the left side of her body, while the right side broke into nervous static at the edges.
"Tell me whether you crossed over too," Elias said.
"I do not think death feels like this," Dots said. "I feel sick, like I am being stretched across a rack."
Elias pulled his knees toward his chest. The motion moved slowly through the dark.
"The bone tower and the Crucifix were real, correct?" he asked.
"It was real, and I am still split," Dots said. "I am looking at Kikaru right now."
Elias stopped drifting.
