Chapter 69: The Memory That Survived the Fire
The first thing Ava heard was her own breath. Not steady. Not calm. But real.She blinked, slow and heavy, as the light above the med-chamber flickered in and out like a memory refusing to settle. Her hands felt wrong. Not detached—just... distant. Like they'd once belonged to someone else.
Then the pain hit. Not in the body. In the mind.
Images—dozens—collided in her skull.
Tessa's voice.
Echo's stare.
Rook's silence.
A flicker of fire and a room of mirrors.
And Fall's face, flickering between a stranger and herself.
She gasped and sat up too fast. Alarms wailed. Aya's voice barked in her ear, distorted: "Ava, stop—stay still, you're bleeding in the—"
"I'm fine," Ava rasped, voice cracked like it had been screaming for a thousand years. "Where is Fall?"
The room hushed. Tessa, standing by the wall, looked like she hadn't blinked in hours. Her lip trembled as if she wanted to rush in but didn't dare break Ava's focus. Rook stepped forward, slow, deliberate.