Page 191 of Sienna Rossi: Beyond Shattered Trust

The sudden stillness that has enveloped me feels wrong. I was doing something, something important, but every time I reach for the memory, it slips away from me. There’s a pressure building inside my head, a dull ache that rapidly intensifies until I press my hands against my temples, trying to force my thoughts into place.

But it’s not working. I slowly look around, unease settling deeper into my stomach.

Where am I?

There is nothing here… Wasn’t I- where was I?

All around me, there’s just endless darkness stretching in every direction, so vast and empty that it makes me feel insignificant within it. The silence is somehow worse. It’s unnatural, as if the entire world has stopped breathing.

The pressure in my head is growing; it’s intensifying into pain. Something tells me to stop fighting it, to give in to that feeling.

Submit.

The power in that voice is soothing, and I want to listen – I should.

The pain is getting unbearable. I grip my head, my vision blurring.

Submit.

Then I hear another voice.

Sienna. The sound is faint at first, barely more than a whisper, but it instantly cuts through the fog and pain clouding my mind.

My breath catches.

Jayce.

Relief floods through me so suddenly that it almost hurts.

“Jayce?” I call out, turning towards the sound, my eyes watering from the pain.

The darkness remains unchanged, but I hear him again.

This time louder.

Closer.

More urgent.

Sienna. Can you hear me? I’m right here; I got you.

Got me? What is…

Where are we? I ask, my entire body convulsing from the pain that’s become unbearable.

Then I feel his presence beside me, his arms wrapping around me, his hand ghosting along my forehead, and the pain begins to subside. I suck in a deep breath as I feel his mind open up to me.

The moment he does, memories begin crashing back into place. The dome. The Will. The cocoons. The battle. Velasara. The portal.

The Will!

I touched the Will!

The very moment the realisation hits me, the darkness shatters. Power slams into me from every direction.

I gasp as the world reforms around me, only to realise I’m suspended inside something I can’t fully comprehend. Energy surrounds me on all sides, vast currents of power flowing endlessly around a space that feels both impossibly small and infinitely large at the same time. It pulses like a living thing, each beat carrying enough power to make my entire body tremble.

The Will.