*Lena*
“Easy now, not too fast. That’s it–”
The Night God patted my back as I gulped for breath, shivering in the stunning cold that was embracing me like a wet blanket. I opened my eyes, sucking in a shallow breath as I looked around.
“What’s going on?” I cried, rising to my knees.
The withered old man pursed his lips, his hands stuffed in the pockets of his khaki trousers as he looked down at me with a fatherly look of disapproval.
“You offered yourself to the sunstone in exchange for Xander’s life, remember?” he quipped, shrugging his shoulders.
I blinked up at him, then looked around once more, taking in the familiar space.
I was in the ancient temple of the White Queens, the one tucked inside an ice-covered cove only accessible in the dead of winter, the same temple we’d passed through to journey between Andromeda’s realm and my own.