There was no light. There was no sound.

My spiritual energy had shattered like glass, dissolving into an abyss of absolute, silent black. I was floating in a void of nothingness, detached from the rain, the mud, the horrific explosion, and the deafening crack of the gunshot.

*Julian.

Time did not exist in the darkness. There was only the steady, rhythmic hiss of a mechanical ventilator, the rhythmic chirping of cardiac monitors, and the pervasive, sterile scent of bleach and iodine.

But beneath the hospital sounds, there was a constant, unrelenting anchor: Julian.

*“Phina?”*

The voice was a jagged whisper, tearing through the heavy veil of my unconsciousness.

Opening my eyes felt like trying to lift a pair of iron vaults. My eyelids fluttered, protesting the sudden, blinding sting of the hospital room’s fluorescent lights. Everything was a blu