My eyes flew open.
For a moment I did not know where I was. My chest rose sharply, air dragging into my lungs as if I had been underwater. The cool night air scraped down my throat. My heart pounded hard enough that I could feel it in my fingertips.
Stone pressed against my back. Silk clung lightly to my skin. The scent was not antiseptic. It was jasmine. Rose. Night air.
The balcony.
The palace.
Darkness stretched across the sky, scattered with stars exactly where I had left them. The gardens below were quiet. No fluorescent lights. No monitors. No narrow bed.
Just the faint rustle of leaves and the distant hum of guards changing shifts.
I inhaled again, slower this time, though it still trembled on the way in. My hands were empty. No fur. No warmth resting on my chest. Only the lingering phantom weight of something that had never truly been there.
Nero's voice cut through the silence.
[Host. You are breathing like you just ran from an assassin.]
