Elyse pov
Pain woke me first.
Not physical pain, something deeper. Like I’d been hollowed out and scraped raw from the inside. Every breath felt like work. Every thought moved through molasses.
I opened my eyes slowly, squinting against the light filtering through the window.
My room. The prison, which wasn’t quite a prison. Still here.
Still alive, apparently.
I tried to sit up and my body screamed protest. My muscles were liquid. My head spun. I collapsed back against the pillows, gasping.
What happened?
Then it came back in pieces. The healing. Ronan’s mother. The poison was embedded so deeply that I’d have to tear it out molecule by molecule. The feeling of my magic stretching, straining, breaking…
I’d pushed too far. Way too far.
But did it work?
The question consumed me.
