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The world dissolves.

When it snaps back into place, cold tile presses against my knees, and fluorescent lights buzz overhead.

We're in the hospital.

"Help!" I scream, lungs burning. "Help us! Please!"

Footsteps thunder toward us. A nurse rounds the corner, her eyes widening.

"Oh, good lord—" She hits a button on the wall. "I need a gurney in the ER baynow!"

More people rush in—doctors, nurses, moving with practiced efficiency.

“He was attacked by a wolf.” The words barely escape past the emotions clogging my throat.

They lift Asher onto a stretcher, hands pressing gauze to his wounds. I barely register what’s going on. The urgent voices dropping to a hollow buzz.

I try to follow, but a nurse catches my arm. "You need to wait here, honey."

I pull against her grip. "No, I have to?—"

"—let us help your friend. You got him here. Let us do our job. Is there someone I can call for you?"

They push Asher’s gurney through a set of double doors, and I lose sight of him. The doors wing shut behind them, and I’m left shaking all alone.

I stand there, staring at the empty bay.

At the blood pooling on the tile.

My legs give out and my knees hit so hard my teeth clack together. I ache to the marrow of my bones, to the depths of my lungs.

And somewhere in the dark, I feel it—Tharuzel's satisfaction curling through the bond like smoke.There are consequences for defying me, Poppy Hallowind. The sooner you accept fate, the better.

Oh, I know my fate. It’s to destroy him.

He drew first blood, and it’s on.

This is war.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

“Poppy? Are you hearing me?” Gentle hands grip my shoulders and turn me away from staring at the double doors.

Wylder.

Orion’s here, too.

I blink and try to get my mental train back on its track. “How are you here?”

“A nurse called me. You gave her my name.”

I did? I don’t remember that. “It’s my fault… There was so much blood….”

“What happened?” Orion asks.

“It was Tharuzel’s wolf.”

Orion closes his eyes. “He’s so stupidly self-sacrificing.”