(Elias POV)
Pain dragged me awake like claws under my skin.
The first thing I felt was the fire across my chest—deep, throbbing gashes that pulled with every shallow breath. Cracked ribs ground together when I tried to move; my left arm hung useless, swollen and hot. The cave smelled of moss, blood, and damp earth. Dim gray light filtered through the branch-camouflaged entrance, turning everything soft and shadowed.
I was alive.
That surprised me more than it should have.
The last clear memory was moonlight on blood-soaked leaves, Damien's face twisted in horror as he knelt beside me, hands hovering over the wounds he'd made without knowing. Nova's light—warm gold pressing into torn flesh, slowing the bleeding. Then darkness. Now this cave, this pain, this quiet.
