(LANCE )
The hospital wing was supposed to be a sanctuary.
Instead, it became another battlefield at dawn.
I sat up in the bed, painkillers dulling the fire in my chest and side, as the first gray light of morning filtered through the reinforced windows. Eliona was curled against me, her hospital gown loose, her head on my shoulder, our fingers intertwined. The monitors beeped steadily, tracking the fragile life we had clawed back from the cliff ledge.
Elena was stable in the room down the hall. My sister — the woman who had betrayed me for what she thought was love and then taken a bullet to save us — was still fighting. The doctors said she had a chance. I wasn’t sure if I believed them.
I brushed Eliona’s hair back from her face, tracing the fresh bite mark on her neck with my thum
