My breath catches. My brain? Short-circuits. And then—everything tilts.
The world spins, my vision flickers, and suddenly my limbs feel like dead weight.
Kael is immediately there, catching me, holding me close like I might crumble into dust. My fingers curl weakly into his arm as I fight against the dizzy haze clouding my mind.
“The hell just happened?” My voice is sluggish, my tongue heavy. “Why… why do I feel…?”
Kael’s jaw tightens. “You fell on a rock.”
I squint at him. “A rock?”
“A poisonous one.”
Of fucking course. Because why wouldn’t this place have poisonous rocks? Just another exciting new way for Terrafeara to kick me in the balls.
“So, what do we do?” I rasp, blinking against the fog rolling in.
He doesn’t answer. But I feel it—his hesitation, his worry, the sheer reluctance radiating off him like waves.
“Kael.” My tongue is heavy, my limbs going limp. “What’s wrong?”
His grip tightens. “I have to draw the poison out of you.”
I try to focus, try to push past the molasses in my brain. “As in… cut me open?”
Silence. Or… not silence. More like an implication so loud, it might as well be a scream.
My stomach drops. “Or?—”
His next words wreck me. “If I do…”
I struggle to keep my eyes open. “Yeah?”
He exhales, voice tight. “It’ll fully start the bonding process.”
Scratch record. Freeze frame.What?
“The bonding fucking what now?”
Does that mean…?
“You’re my mate,” he says.
It’s the last thing I hear before the darkness swallows me whole.
CHAPTER
SEVEN
Heat clings to my skin,comforting in a way that makes me snuggle deeper. Awareness comes slowly, a gentle unfurling rather than a jarring snap into consciousness. I feel… good? Which is weird as hell. My body is loose, my mind foggy but not in a poisoned way, more in a cosy, don’t-want-to-move-ever-again kind of way.
It’s nice.
It’s warm.
It’s—
Oh fuck.
