Delilah’s Pov

I didn’t know where I was.

The air was thicker here, colder, humming with a strange weight that pressed against my skin. When the light spat me out of that portal, I landed on hard ground—only to find myself standing in front of a house so massive, so impossible, it made Malric’s mansion look small. Almost bigger. Almost alive.

My heart stuttered. What is this place?

I took a step, then another, calling out into the silence. “Hello? Is anyone here? Please, I… I think I’m lost!”

Nothing answered me.

The silence was maddening. My voice echoed back at me, swallowed by walls of shadows and the looming...