Chapter 82
Aurora’s POV
The smell hit me first—sterile, sharp, and artificial. It was the unmistakable scent of antiseptic mixed with something metallic, like the tang of blood hanging thick in the air. My eyelids fluttered open slowly, the world around me blurring into focus as I groaned, feeling an intense weight pressing down on my limbs. My body felt like it didn’t belong to me—heavy and foreign.
I was lying on a metal table, cold and unyielding beneath my back. The room was harshly lit, with sterile white walls and blinking machines surrounding me on all sides. My breath came in shallow gasps as I realized I wasn’t alone. Tubes snaked from my arms to the machines around me, and I could see my blood flowing through them, disappearing into devices I couldn’t comprehend. My heart le
