The pain did not build slowly.
It struck like lightning.
One moment I was sitting in Nathan’s lap, breathing through the burn on my arm. The next my entire world tilted sideways. My legs buckled. My vision blurred. The room spun.
“Nathan,” I gasped, reaching for him.
I did not make it far.
Everything went black for a second as my knees hit the floor.
Nathan caught me before I hit the ground. His arms swept under me, lifting me as if I weighed nothing. I could feel his panic in the way his chest rose too fast, the way his hands trembled.
“Stay with me,” he murmured, voice ragged. “Stay with me. Margot, look at me.”
I tried.
I really tried.
But the burning on my arm exploded into something far worse.
A firestorm under my skin.
A scream tore out of me before I could stop it. Raw,
