Page 71 of The Blood Crown (The Blood Folk #2)

D arkness unlike any she’d ever known swallowed Aurelia whole.

There was no end, no beginning as she gasped for breath in the suffocating veil of night.

No—not night. Something viscous . . . as if the darkness had substance around her.

Air filled her lungs, but there was no wind, no light, no sound in this depthless place.

She blinked—or she thought she blinked—but it made no difference here. Wherever this was. Her body felt detached from her mind in the endless black, as if it weren’t quite her own. She touched thumb to forefinger, though she couldn’t see them in front of her—

And then she remembered—she remembered what had brought her here . . .

Her scream of agony was swallowed up by the void. And in the jarring silence that followed, a voice slithered through the oily dark.

"Hello, child."