Pain returned before sight, not the searing agony of death but something heavier and denser, the profound ache of flesh reclaiming a soul that had briefly slipped beyond its fragile confines. Breath scraped violently through lungs that had forgotten how to function, dragging air inward with a rawness that felt both punishing and miraculous at once.
I gasped as oxygen tore into me in a rush that burned and blessed in equal measure, and the sheer sensation of being alive again crashed over me with overwhelming force.
“Irene—!”
A voice broke above me, cracked with desperation and threaded with disbelief so sharp it trembled at the edges.
My eyes fluttered open slowly, vision swimming beneath blinding light and unshed tears, and the fractured stone ceiling of the pyramid swam into focus ab
