The Three Who Chose Me

Thorne

I could hear the tension before I stepped into the room. Not just hear it—feel it. It pulsed through the walls like a second heartbeat, thick and charged and stifling. The sharp clang of voices collided in the air, Varen’s tone high and laced with desperation, Kiel’s voice low and edged in fury, every syllable a blade drawn tight against restraint.

And at the center of it all... Josie.

The moment I stepped in, my gaze found her. She lay crumpled on the floor like a porcelain doll knocked from its shelf. Her skin was pale—unnaturally so—sweat glistening across her brow like dew on morning glass. Her chest rose and fell in uneven, shallow bursts. Each breath sounded like it might be her last.

"The medicine helped her," I said tightly, stepping forward, trying to assert control over the chaos I’d just walked into. "She’s not hallucinating anymore. She’s calmer—"

"Calmer?" Varen’s voice cracked like a whip across my spine. He looked deranged—his hair wild, shirt half-untucked, fists clenched so hard his knuckles had gone white. "She tried to kill herself, Thorne! What the hell are you talking about? You call this calm? She had a knife to her wrist!"

I gritted my teeth. "The medicine subdued her episodes. You weren’t even there when she—"

"That’s not the point!" Kiel barked, cutting me off. He was kneeling beside her, his hand clutching hers like a lifeline. There was something desperate in his eyes—something breaking. "You never listen, Thorne! You just throw things down her throat and expect them to fix everything. You want to sedate the problem, not solve it. You’re going to lose her if you keep playing god!"

"Don’t talk to me about losing her," I snapped, stepping toward him. "I’ve been the one holding this pack together while the two of you run around like impulsive children."

"You mean while you experiment on her like she’s some broken tool you’re trying to rewire?" Kiel spat back, his voice shaking with restrained rage. "She’s not a science project, Thorne! She’s—she’s Josie."

"Enough!" I growled.

But I didn’t say it.