Chapter 38: The Price of Power
Raen's breath hitched as the silence stretched on, suffocating him in its weight. The world was still—too still—and he felt an eerie stillness in his bones. It was as if time itself had frozen, leaving him stranded in a void where nothing existed but the crushing sense of emptiness.
But then... he felt it.
A presence.
It wasn't physical, not in the way he was used to. It was deeper, more insidious—a gnawing feeling that crawled under his skin and twisted around his thoughts. It felt like something was pressing in from every direction, tightening its grip around him. But it wasn't the darkness. No, this was something far more terrifying.
Raen's hands trembled, and his heart began to race. His Shatterborn powers flickered weakly within him, as though even they were reluctant to respond in the face of this new threat. For the first time since his descent into the abyss, Raen felt powerless.
He wasn't sure how long he stood there, his mind frantically scrambling for any means of escape. But the longer he remained in that silence, the more he could feel it—a presence that wasn't just in the air around him. It was inside him.
Lyra.
The thought pierced his mind like a shard of glass. Her smile. Her words.
"You've always been mine."