When I opened my eyes again, the room was empty.
Silence pressed in, heavy and suffocating. I shifted, testing my body. Pain tore through me, but this time my hand obeyed. Slowly, I raised it. Bandages wrapped my skull, and a punishing headache pounded behind my eyes.
I forced myself upright. My chest burned, but I stayed up. First thought—my phone. I searched the bedside table. Nothing. The chair, the drawers, every corner of the sterile room—gone. All of my belongings.
Grinding my teeth, I pushed to my feet and staggered toward the window. My reflection stared back: pale, battered, but unbroken. Beyond it, a river stretched vast and restless.
Selene.
Her warning replayed in my head. The files she’d sent. The proof. The roadmap. She’d been right—everything had unfolded exactly as she
