It hit like a surge beneath my skin.
One second I was floating—adrift in something warm and dark and endless—and the next, fire licked along my spine, radiating outward in sharp pulses of too much. My chest arched before I even understood why, a gasp tearing from my throat like it belonged to someone else.
My eyes snapped open.
The room blurred. My body trembled. It felt like I was being pulled inside-out by invisible threads I couldn’t hold onto.
And he was there.
Damian.
Kneeling beside me, his face etched in something raw and devastating and unguarded. His hand gripped mine like it was the only thing keeping him tethered to the ground.
The moment our skin connected, the pain changed—didn’t disappear, but shifted. Something inside me recognized him. Not just emotionally. Viscerall
