CHAPTER 21
AVA’S POV
Waking up after a partial shift felt less like waking and more like crawling out from under a rockslide.
As I lay beneath the heavy silk canopy, the memory of the previous night flooded back, coating my throat with the bitter taste of humiliation. The pulling sensation of my fingernails transforming into black claws, the agony of my fangs tearing through my gums, and the raw, suffocating panic that had driven Ash wild. I had been completely at the mercy of my own trauma, losing my mind over a drop of poison and a courtyard execution.
And then, Draken.
I closed my eyes, my face burning with sudden embarrassment as the image of him filling the doorway flashed in my mind. He hadn't asked. He hadn't comforted me. He had simply crossed the room in three strides and pin
