84 Chapter 84

84 Chapter 84

Seraphina’s POV 1

Darkness was all I had known for what felt like an eternity.

It was peaceful in a way I’d never experienced before-no pain, no worry, no crushing weight of responsibility

on my shoulders. Just pure, uninterrupted rest.

I floated in that darkness, content and safe, as if I were being cradled by the universe itself. Time had no meaning there. There was no sense of urgency, no pressing need to wake up and face whatever waited for me

in the waking world. For the first time in years, I felt truly, completely at peace.

But slowly, gradually, something began to pull me upward.

The ascent was gentle at first. Warmth began to seep into my awareness, followed by the faintest sensation of weight-my body existing in space, lying on something soft. Then came the sounds: distant and muffled, like hearing voices through water, but gradually growing clearer.

A steady beeping. The soft whoosh of air being circulated. The quiet murmur of voices speaking in hushed,

worried tones.

My eyelids felt impossibly heavy, as if they’d been weighted down with stones. The simple act of trying to open them seemed to require more effort than I remembered it ever taking. I struggled against the lethargy that clung to me, fighting to break through the last layers of that peaceful darkness.

When I finally managed to crack my eyes open, the world exploded into harsh, unforgiving light.

I squeezed them shut immediately, a sharp gasp escaping my lips as the brightness sent spikes of pain

through my head. The light was cold and clinical, nothing like the warm, golden glow of sunlight or the soft

flicker of candlelight. It was artificial.

Where was I?

Fighting through the discomfort, I slowly opened my eyes again, this time preparing for the assault of fluorescent lights. As my vision adjusted, shapes began to come into focus around me. White ceiling tiles. White walls. The metallic gleam of medical equipment.

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84 Chapter 84

a hospital room. The steady beeping I’d been hearing was coming from monitors connected to me by a web of wires and tubes. An IV drip hung beside my bed, and I could feel the sharp

was in

water in my veins. What had happened to

had was… was what

to sit up, but my body felt foreign and unresponsive. My muscles

of lifting my head from the

breathless.

turned my head to the side, desperate to get my bearings, to find

figures sitting in chairs beside my bed, both staring

expressions of

by his white coat and the stethoscope draped around his

wide with what looked

that made my already racing

Damien.

in a chair pulled right up against my bedside, but he

styled hair was disheveled, as if he’d been running his

clothes-a wrinkled dress shirt and slacks that

his

The strong, confident features I knew so well

worry I’d never seen before. Dark circles shadowed his

appear almost hollow in his

at me as if he couldn’t quite believe what he was seeing, his mouth

was pressed against his chest, over his heart, as if he was trying

out of

happening, but all that came out

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84 Chapter 84

as if I hadn’t used my voice in weeks. I swallowed hard, wincing at

The word came out as barely a whisper, rough and scratchy. I cleared my throat, the sound

and forced myself to speak

sound of my

shot out to grasp mine. His fingers were warm and solid and real, anchoring me to the present

rough with emotion, breaking on my name as if he couldn’t quite believe he

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