Keya's POV:
I felt numb.
Not the peaceful kind of numb. Not the kind that follows a cry or a good night’s sleep. This was the sort of numb that crawled under your skin and hollowed you out from the inside.
Every inch of me hurt.
My bones throbbed like they had been shattered and reassembled in the wrong order. My muscles quivered, twitching with aftershocks of a pain that refused to settle. And my chest—Goddess, my chest—felt cracked open, my heart beating against the raw air like it didn’t quite belong anymore.
James was still wailing somewhere behind me. Loud, pitiful. Alone. No one was here to take care of him--that was what happened when you antagonize everyone who stood by you.
And despite everything—despite the betrayal, the manipulation, the mark I had begged to be removed—I
