Chapter 179

CHAPTER 21… VALENTINA Falling shouldn’t feel gentle. It was supposed to be painful enough to break apart, except it wasn’t. This falling was gentle, even softer. The Veil didn’t drag me like a prisoner— it cradled me like something precious it wasn’t ready to let go of. Light and shadow folded around me, layering over my skin like memories in reverse. My hair lifted weightlessly, drifting as though I were sinking through water made of moonlight. For a moment… I felt at peace. A wrong kind of peace. Because my chest— my heart— it kept searching wildly for something. Or, for someone. A voice… A warmth… A name... ‘Andres.’ The thought came like a whisper I wasn’t sure belonged to me. I touched my forehead as I drifted, an ache forming behind my ribs. Why did that name feel like a heartbeat? Why did I feel like something inside me was tearing, reaching, clawing toward it? But before I could examine the ache… I landed. Softly. On what looked like a floor made of glowing ash and starlight. T