Celeste's POV
*****
"Celeste, you've got to snap out of it!"
"Can she hear us?!"
"Little miss!"
"Stay away from her!"
Voices layered one over the other but I couldn't react to them. I couldn't even think properly enough to register who said what.
Slowly, the world got swallowed in darkness.
The screams. The lightning. The roaring chaos around me—
—all of it vanished at once.
When my eyes opened again I wasn't hovering above the Crimson Expanse. Neither was there a beam of chaotic energy ripping out of my body.
I stood in the middle of a familiar lake clearer than glass. It rippled around my feet but was as firm as any solid ground. Then above me—the sky was pitch black.
My jaw slacked when I noticed the cracks spiderwebbing through it, spilling out crimson energy wisps like blood. There was even a full moon which appeared to be the only normal thing here.
Until my eyes flicked to its reflection on the lake.
I nearly stumbled back.
