The first thing I noticed when consciousness began to return was the strange absence of pain.
The agony from earlier should have been overwhelming. I remembered the moment clearly—the rogue’s claws driving into my ribs, the snap that had seemed to echo through my chest, the hot rush of blood pouring down my side.
Instead, there was only a faint soreness, as if my body remembered the injury but no longer carried it.
My mind surfaced slowly through warmth and exhaustion.
Wake up, Anita urged inside my head, tension threading through her voice.
My eyelids fluttered open.
Sunlight filtered through the dense canopy above, scattering patches of gold across the forest floor. Somewhere nearby, water rushed steadily over stone, the sound weaving through the quiet woods.
A river.
Memory hit
