AYASHA'S POV
When I woke the second time, the world felt like it was happening to someone else. My body existed in pieces, disconnected fragments floating in a haze of medication and trauma. The sunlight filtering through the curtains wasn't warm; it was harsh, clinical, cutting through my vision in jagged strips that made my skull throb.
I looked to my side. Koda's absence hit me like a physical blow. The indent in the chair where he'd been sitting was still there, the blanket he'd wrapped around his shoulders folded carefully on the armrest. But he was gone. In the space where his steady breathing should have been, there was only the antiseptic smell of the medical wing and the distant murmur of voices I couldn't quite make out.
My chest constricted. Court matters, I told myself. Just court matters. But my mind immediately spiraled elsewhere. What if they'd taken him? What if protecting me had finally cost him everything?
I tried to move my legs.
Nothing.
