I groaned under my breath before I even opened my eyes.
Something felt wrong.
Not pain exactly. More like my body had been pulled somewhere while the rest of me was still asleep. I tried to move, expecting the thin mattress in the little shop, the warmth of Maribel against my chest, the faint smell of dust and old wood around us.
Instead, when I opened my eyes, there was only white.
White above me.
White beneath me.
White stretching so far in every direction that I could not tell where the ground ended and the sky began.
I pushed myself upright.
There was no shop. No mattress. No Maribel.
Just that endless, empty place.
I knew it immediately.
My stomach tightened.
If I was here, then—
"Awake at last?"
I turned around.
She stood several steps away from me.
The White Lady.
