Chapter 43 Golden Light

• Maxiana
• The beach of gems is roiling with an energy I haven’t felt here before. I can’t explain it, but everything feels… wrong. I rise from the sparkling sand of tiny stones, crossing my arms over my chest against a sudden, unusual chill. A soft fluttering breeze rushes toward me, disturbing the otherwise calm, inky-black water. The wind carries whispered voices that make my skin pebble–voices of pain and suffering, of utter despair. A male voice, calling out to me in the stillness, my name a whisper, a prayer, a rushed apology.
• I furrow my brows as the breeze ceases and silence returns, but that chill remains, licking up and down my spine while I turn to inspect the never ending beach.