(Isabella’s POV)
I surfaced from a deep, dreamless void, my limbs heavy, my mind wrapped in a thick, disorienting fog. For a blissful moment, I knew nothing. There was only the softness of silk sheets against my skin and the faint, rhythmic beep of a machine somewhere nearby.
Then, memory returned. Not as a gentle stream, but as a tidal wave.
Cassian’s face, a cruel mirror of Alessandro’s, twisted in a triumphant smirk. The scent of gunpowder. Lucian, falling back, his arm stained with blood. The impossible weight of the gun in my own hands. The bone-deep terror. Alessandro’s anguished face as I flinched away from him.
I sat bolt upright, a gasp tearing from my throat. My heart hammered against my ribs, a frantic, caged bird. My eyes darted around the room. It was not my room. It was n
