Again.
Because my brother has the worst sense of humor in any realm.
Darkness claims me before impact.
Not the gentle darkness of the dreamscape, but something more absolute—consciousness collapsing like a house of cards, every sensation vanishing into nothing with the particular finality of systems simplystopping.
The last thing I register is warmth.
Bond marks burning against my skin, anchoring me to men who refuse to let me fall into oblivion no matter how hard reality tries to claim me. Cassius's shadow-starlight. Atticus's crimson devotion. Nikolai's fae iridescence. Mortimer's dragon warmth. Zeke's frost-touched care. Damien's complicated promise.
Six points of light in the darkness.
Six anchors preventing dissolution.
Six reasons to fight my way back to consciousness.
And somewhere, barely perceptible, a seventh presence I can't identify—watching from angles that don't exist, waiting with patience that transcends mortal understanding.
Seven.
Gabriel said seven.
Oh, I'm going to have words with that prince when I wake up.
Strong words.
Possibly accompanied by violence.
But first, I need to actuallywake up.
The darkness presses against me from all sides, thick and heavy and absolute. I can feel myself suspended within it—not falling anymore, not moving at all, just... existing in the space between one heartbeat and the next.
Wake up.
Open your eyes.
Return to the men who are waiting, to the trials that remain, to the destiny you've been fighting toward since the moment you set foot in Wicked Academy.
The bonds pulse with encouragement.
The darkness begins to thin.
And somewhere in the depths of my recovering consciousness, I make a note.
A very specific, very detailed, verypermanentnote.
Gabriel pushed me off a cliff as "payback."
He did it while smiling.
He did it after a genuinely touching farewell that made me cry.
He is an absolute menace and I refuse to forget this betrayal.
The darkness continues to recede, reality asserting itself in increments—sounds first, then sensations, then the awarenessof a body that exists in physical space rather than dreamscape abstraction.
I can hear voices.
