Chapter Twenty-Three
I didn’t fall all at once.
That would’ve been easier.
Cleaner.
Instead, it felt like slipping—slowly, quietly—like losing your footing without realizing it until you’re already too far gone to stop.
“Ava, stay with me.”
Ethan’s voice.
Still there.
Still trying.
But it sounded… distant.
Like it had to travel through something thick just to reach me.
“I am,” I said.
Or at least—
I thought I said it.
My lips moved.
I felt them.
But the sound didn’t feel like mine.
The room blurred again, shapes stretching at the edges, shadows bending in ways they shouldn’t.
And that presence—
It wasn’t outside anymore.
It was inside.
Wrapped around every thought.
Every feeling.
Every breath.
Stop fighting.
The voice wasn’t loud.
It didn’t need to be.
It was cer
