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EVE

I was floating in the dark, my body adrift in a current of pure agony. My limbs were heavy, unreachable, and my thoughts were a tangled mess, clawing for coherence but slipping through my fingers like smoke.

Then, through the haze, came Ragnar’s voice.

“You’re not dying on me. You hear me?” His growl was sharp and panicked, the sound slicing through the oppressive fog in my mind.

I wanted to answer him, to tell him I was trying, but the words wouldn’t come. But his voice seemed to pull me closer to the surface, the weightlessness giving way to fractured sensations.

The ground was disappearing beneath me.

The searing brightness of magic.

The vertigo that swept over me as the world shifted.

I clung to my wavering awareness, but it was like holding on to water.

Then, we landed. Hard.

The jolt rattled through me, dragging a low, strangled sound from my throat. The pressure in my chest flared, sharp and white-hot, forcing my awareness to the edge.

“Fuck!” Ragnar’s voice snapped through the chaos, raw and panicked. “Stay with me, Hellspawn.”

“Ragnar!” Xander’s voice cut through, a stark contrast to Ragnar’s fury. “What happened? Get her on the table—now!”

Ragnar was screaming something as he lowered me onto a hard surface, something about the chef and an ambush.

“She’s bleeding out.”

“ Where the fuck is Orion?! ”

I felt a biting chill that spread from Xander’s hands where they pressed against my chest.

“He was on his way. He’ll be back as soon as he realizes—“

Voices bled together, muffled and distorted as I drifted in and out of the haze. The cold of Xander’s magic was the only thing tethering me to the present, but even that was beginning to fade.

I couldn’t give in. Not now.

“Tell me what happened,” Xander demanded, his calm veneer finally cracking.

Ragnar’s response was a rumbling snarl. “I did what I could, alright? She stabbed the fucker before I got there, and then he—”

“What the fuck happened?!” Orion’s voice filled the room, frantic and raw.

“She’s bleeding out. I’m holding it off, but it’s not enough. She needs you.”

Orion’s hand found mine. His magic flooded me with warmth—split the dark like a flare over open water. I swam toward it, not because it hurt less—but because it felt like home.

“I’ve got you, sunshine,” Orion whispered. “Stay with me, alright? I’m here now. How the fuck could you let this happen?!”

“Don’t you fucking start with me. I didn’t ask to babysit your little human!”

“She’s dying, Ragnar! And you’re drenched in her blood. You let this fucking happen!”

“You think I don’t fucking know that?!”

Their voices overlapped each other again in a chaotic symphony of rage and blame. My head pounded. I wanted to say something, to tell them to stop fighting, but I couldn’t even open my eyes.

“Enough! If you two want to kill each other, do it later. Right now, she needs us united.”

I had to reach them. Had to anchor them. Had to tell them I was still here.

My lips parted, but nothing came. I pushed harder, clawing for control over my own body. A weak, broken sound slipped free—a shadow of what I wanted to scream. But it was enough.

“Eve?” Orion’s voice trembled.

“She’s awake,” Xander’s tone was laced with horror. “Orion—put her to sleep! She must be in agony.”

No. My defiance was silent, but it burned as fiercely as the pain in my body. I didn’t want to slip back into the darkness.

“I’m so sorry, Eve. I should have been there, but I’m here now. I’ll make it better, I promise.”

The warmth of his magic surged, washing over me like a tidal wave. It was soft, soothing, pulling me under with a gentle but unstoppable force.

I tried to resist, clinging to the last threads of awareness, but the darkness was relentless.