Eve
My eyes snapped open to blinding light.
I gasped—air rushing into my lungs like fire. My limbs jerked, trying to move, to defend, to run—
But I couldn't.
Restraints.
Cold, metallic, and unyielding.
Panic surged.
I thrashed, the edges of the slab biting into my skin. My voice caught in my throat—raw, strained, half-formed.
"H-Hello?" I rasped. "Where—?"
A voice answered.
Cold. Familiar. Devastating.
"You're awake."
I froze.
Hades.
I couldn't see him—yet I felt him. His presence pressed against me from beyond the sterile light above, suffocating in its intensity.
"I need to speak to you," I choked out. "There's something you need to know. Please, just listen—"
His voice cut through me like a blade.
"Were you the one that did it?"
I blinked. "What—?"
"Are you the beast of the night?"
Each word was like iron sinking into my chest.
I turned my head, slowly, painfully. My eyes adjusted.
And I saw them.
All of them.
Kael.
The Montegues.