NINA’S POV
I didn’t sleep.
I laid in bed staring at the ceiling. The silence was the loudest it had ever been. And in that silence, I found the truth: I was terrified.
Not just of the ritual or the pain.
I was afraid of being forgotten. Afraid of Zane looking at me one day and seeing a stranger. Afraid of becoming the thing I feared most… someone he had to put down.
I turned onto my side and pulled the covers tighter, willing my thoughts to stop spinning.
It didn’t work.
At some point, I must have drifted off because I woke up to a soft knock. The light outside had changed. Early morning…
Zane’s voice came through the door. “I made coffee.”
I got up slowly, my limbs were heavy with everything unsaid, everything that was coming. I padded downstairs and found him at the kitchen co
