I woke up gasping, my body jerking upright in the darkness. At first, I thought it was another nightmare—Silver Fang wolves dragging me back, Victoria's cold smile as she ordered my punishment, the phantom sensation of my organs spilling out onto forest leaves.
But this was different.
Heat bloomed in my stomach, right where the worst of the damage had been. Not the dull ache I'd grown used to over the past weeks, but something sharper, more insistent. Like someone had pressed a hot coal against my skin from the inside.
I lifted my shirt with trembling fingers, half-expecting to see flames dancing across my scarred abdomen. Instead, in the dim moonlight filtering through my window, I could make out the familiar map of raised, angry scars—but now they seemed to pulse with an inner light,
