Book Four: Chapter 44

The light from the lamp post flickered again, a subtle but noticeable pulse, and she realized with a start that she was drifting closer to it without consciously deciding to move. The motion felt natural, like gravity, or like a tide gently pulling her toward shore. She let out a slow breath she hadn’t realized she was holding, a quiet sigh of relief escaping her lips when the lamp’s glow swallowed more of her surroundings. For the first time since she’d arrived here—wherever here was—there was something other than an endless, yawning void pressing in on her from all sides.

As she crossed into the brighter halo of the lamp, her limbs solidified.

Before, her arms and legs had been ghostly things, barely more than outlines, translucent and insubstantial. She could see through herself, edges blurring into the surrounding darkness. But the moment her foot touched the light, se