A flutter.
It was barely there, a whisper of life, but it. Was. There.
Marius’s entire world centered on that minuscule movement. He swept Vivienne into his arms, his own wounds nothing in comparison to hers.
“She’s still alive.” He stood and faced the royals. “We need to get her help. Now.”
Death Waited in the Wings
Vivienne was floating.
Everything around her was dark and empty.
Shadows didn’t exist in this space because light was a foreign concept. There were no stars. No moon. Nothing at all, except her.
She was weightless, and nothing was right.
She couldn’t see anything, but when she tried to open her eyes, nothing happened. It was as if her body had forgotten it was attached to her mind. She couldn’t feel her fingers, her toes, or even the burning pain that had been devouring her from the inside out earlier.
She just... was.
How long had she been here? It felt like minutes, but it could have been decades or centuries.
Time had no meaning in this place, wherever it was.
Would this emptiness be her home for the rest of eternity? She’d always assumed that if she ever met her final death, life would just... end.
Maybe she’d been wrong.
Maybe this was it.
She didn’t feel dead, though. She didn’t feel anything at all.
Vivienne didn’t know how long she floated through the nothingness of this space that was like the Void, but not. Nothing seemed to matter at all until something pierced through the darkness of the space where she currently resided.
At first, it was nothing more than a silver spark.
There one moment, gone the next.
Was it a figment of her imagination?
Sometime later, it happened again. Silver flashed, bursting through the darkness like an exploding star before it disappeared.
This time, she was sure it was real.
It happened again.
And again.
Each time, the flash of silver was brighter and remained longer before vanishing.
Something deep within her stirred. The strange flashes called to her, speaking to a part of her that didn’t quite make sense.
More silver appeared. The tiny tendrils of bright light multiplied. Soon, this place that wasn’t a place was more silver than black.
And then she heard it. A faint, barely audible murmur broke through the darkness. It was as if she was deep underwater. She could barely hear them, but the sound reverberated through her soul.
“Viv?” The voice faded in and out. “Come back.”