Aria's POV
I don't know how long I'd been lying there.
The fever had burned the room down to a white blur, and I'd stopped fighting it. Somewhere beneath the heat, in the place where the bond used to be, there was only a clean, cold emptiness now—no pull, no ache reaching for him.
For the first time in two years, I wasn't straining toward the mate who didn't want her.
Let it end here, then. I was too tired to fight the dark any longer.
I was floating, almost gone—
when something dragged me back.
Not a sound at first. A pressure. That hollow place where the bond used to be gave a single, violent throb, as if something on the far end had come crashing closer. My eyes dragged open.
Then I heard it. The roar of an engine tearing up the drive. A car door slamming hard enough to rattle t
