I stopped trying to wake up; every time I reached for the outside, the curse followed. It had taken me too long to understand that.
I didn't know how many days had passed anymore. Rhys's voice came and went. Petra and Sorin were there often. Sometimes I could hear the doctor moving around the room, the scrape of a chair, and someone opening the door.
The rest of the time, there was only the curse.
At first, I had treated it like something I could keep away from me. I imagined a door between us because that made sense. It pushed; I held it shut.
That had worked for a while.
Then, a few days ago, it had reached beyond me. Not enough to escape, but enough to touch a wolf outside.
Then another.
One of them had been Rhys.
I knew him through the bond immediately. The curse did too. But then I had managed to cut the connection before it went any further.
Afterward, I heard Petra talking beside the bed.
"It reached two of them."
Rhys answered, "Get every wolf away from her."
