Chapter 199
ZARA
The floor was cold.
Her cheek stuck to it—damp, tacky with blood or sweat or both. The metallic tang in her mouth wasn’t just taste, it was memory. It filled her nose, seeped into her teeth, made her stomach twist.
Something beeped. Far off. Or was it inside her skull? A mechanical pulse that didn’t match her heartbeat.
She blinked. Once. Twice. Blurred ceiling. Fluorescent light.
The world felt tilted—like her body had been reassembled wrong. Limbs heavier, slower.
She turned her head. Her hair snagged against the floor. Dried blood matted the strands.
Why couldn’t she move?
Where was—
She.
That was the first thing Zara registered through the buzzing ache in her skull and the dry iron taste flooding her mouth. Her body refused to obey at first, muscles sluggish and twitching beneath her skin. The chill of the cot bolted to the wall seeped through the paper-thin sheet beneath her, numbing her spine. Lights above hummed a low, sterile tone that cut through her skull like a migraine. The walls were clinical. Grey. Seamless.