It’s Astra.
The sound shatters whatever restraint we had left. Lucian shifts mid-stride, his black wolf exploding forward. I’m right behind him, my own transformation bursting through me as we race toward that open doorway.
Another scream—raw, agonized, desperate. Selene.
It cuts off abruptly.
And the silence that follows is so much worse.
Chapter Sixteen
Selene
I’m floatingin the dark.
There’s nothing here. No sound. No light. No sensation of up or down. Just endless, suffocating blackness.
I try to move. Can’t. Try to speak. Can’t. Try to feel my wolf. Nothing.
Where am I?
The question echoes in my mind, unanswered.
I’m not awake; I know that much. But I’m not asleep, either. This is something else. Something in between. Like being suspended in deep water, with pressure pushing in from all sides, crushing me.
Time doesn’t exist here. I could be floating for seconds or hours or days. There’s no way to tell. No way to measure the passing of moments when there are no moments at all.
Just this. Just darkness.
Then—movement. Not mine. Something pulling at me, tugging me forward through thevoid like a fish on a line.
No. Stop. Let me go.
But there’s no one to hear my thoughts. No one to listen. I’m screaming into nothing, and nothing screams back.
The darkness shifts. Changes. The absolute black becomes something less solid, less complete. Like ink dissolving in water.
My eyes open.
I’m staring up at faces. Daciana’s dark braid falls over her shoulder, her brow furrowed with concern. Astra stands beside her, one hand pressed protectively to her stomach, the other reaching toward me. And there’s a healer—young, with dark hair pulled back—leaning over me, her fingers pressed to my wrist, checking my pulse.
“Her heartbeat is strong,” the healer murmurs.
Relief should flood through me. I should feel safe surrounded by people who care about me.
But I don’t feel anything. Just a terrible numbness, that sense of being underwater.
“Selene?” Daciana’s voice is soft, gentle. “Can you hear me?”
I want to answer, to tell her yes, I can hear her, I’m here. I’m trapped, but I’m here.
My mouth doesn’t move, but my body sits up.
Except, I didn’t tell it to. I didn’t decide to move. My muscles just…did that. As if someone else pulled some strings and my body went with them.
Panic explodes somewhere deep inside me, buried under layers of fog. I’m watching through my own eyes, feeling through my own skin, but I’m not in control. It’s almost like I’m a passenger in my own body, screaming from behind soundproof glass while someone else drives.
“Selene?” Astra takes a step closer, her face brightening with hope. “Are you okay? You’ve been out for hours, and we were so worried—”
