Serena felt the rock disappear behind her and found herself flat on her back.
She opened her eyes slowly. Constellations shimmered above her. A massive silver moon hung overhead, impossibly close. For a moment, she thought she was outside.
Then she recognized it. The chamber under the library. The one with the ceiling enchanted like a night sky. The one as large as Drakenfell castle itself.
She was lying on the rune she'd carved the night she was crowned. The Aureus Catenes cuff she wore on her wrist had activated and brought her here.
That meant one thing: this was most definitely not her first shift.
Was she really that close to death?
She felt strangely calm. Almost like it was happening to someone else.
Well, now we know they work, she thought dryly to herself.
"Serena?" Alaric's voice cut through the fog in her mind. "What on earth?"
He slid to his knees next to her, examining her forehead followed by her limbs.
