Odette's POV
The doctor had been tending to my wounds, his hands steady as he cleaned and bandaged every cut. The room was so quiet, it felt like silence itself had crawled in and taken a seat—broken only by Mara's constant sobbing beside me.
Her cries clawed at my ears, raw and endless. She hadn't stopped since I fell.
"Mara," I whispered for the hundredth time, my voice hoarse, "it's okay… it's okay. Please don't cry anymore."
But nothing I said mattered. She wept harder, her chest heaving like the sound of her tears alone might rip her in half. As if her life was already slipping through her fingers, when in reality, I knew the real danger hadn't even reached us yet.
Not him.
Not Evander.
I had already made up my mind. I would fight for her if I had to—fight for her life if it meant mine was the one wasted instead. But the thought barely took root before a voice, sharp and chilling, cut through the air.
"What the fuck happened to her?"
My entire body froze.
That voice.
