Alina’s POV
The ambulance ride was a blur of sirens and shouting and Maddox’s blood everywhere—on my hands, my dress, the pristine white sheets of the gurney. So much blood that I couldn’t understand how there was any left in his body.
“Stay with me,” I kept repeating, gripping his hand while the paramedics worked around me. “Maddox, stay with me. You don’t get to do this. You don’t get to save me and then leave.”
His eyes had fluttered open once, unfocused and hazy. “Did we… win?” he’d mumbled.
“Yes,” I’d promised, even though I had no idea if it was true. “We won. Hart’s finished. So you have to stay, okay? You have to see it through.”
He managed a faint smile—just a shadow of his usual charm—but then his eyes rolled back, and he went completely limp.
“He’s fading!” one of the para
