Trigger Warning: This chapter contains mature, graphic, and potentially distressing content that may not be suitable for all readers. Please proceed with caution and care for your mental well-being.
Evangeline’s POV:
I had blacked out. That much was obvious.
Not just from the throbbing in my skull or the cotton-stuffed numbness in my limbs—but from the hollow way reality slithered back into my body. I came to in pieces, consciousness crawling its way through broken glass.
The moment my eyes fluttered open, I knew. That familiar sinking—like I’d been submerged beneath something dark and heavy, like every nerve ending was coated in oil and ash. I knew this sensation. I’d felt it before.
Too many times for a normal person. The feeling of being close to death.
And just like before, it wa
