The world dissolved into a blur. Thick fog mixed with howling wind and swirling snow reduced visibility to nothing.
Vale plummeted through the white chaos, blind and disoriented. He stretched out his arms, grasping at empty air—there was nothing to hold onto.
"So close…" he muttered, the words barely audible over the roar of the storm.
The image burned into his mind—a tree made of light standing beside the dark silhouette of the castle. It replayed again and again, a cruel reminder of how close he was, until at last he shut his eyes—and the blinding white gave way to darkness.
But before he could crash to the ground below, before death could wrap its arms around him, he landed—
on something far different from the deadly fall he'd expected.
His eyes snapped open. A thunderous roar shook the air, sending tremors down his spine.
