Serena
I couldn’t feel my legs.
I couldn’t feel anything but the fire—deep and ripping through me—like I was being torn in two.
“The moment I gave life,” I whispered, “death answered.”
My voice barely sounded like mine.
“Serena,” Xavier said beside me. His face was pale, lips tight, but his voice was calm. “You’ve got this. Just breathe.”
I tried to breathe. Gods, I did. But the pain gripped me like claws. My fingers were white-knuckled on the rails of the medical bed.
Sweat poured down my face. My hair stuck to my skin. My gown was soaked.
I was drowning in pain. And it wasn’t just physical.
It was energy. Wild. Alive. Pulsing out of me and from me and into something. Or someone.
Another contraction slammed into me, and I screamed. The lights above blinked, then flared red.
“S
