Chapter 112

Aisha's POV Darkness wasn't supposed to feel this warm. It held me like a cradle, far from the war, far from the pressure, far from everything I had to be. But warmth also meant something real. Something present. The first thing I registered was the soft weight of a hand wrapped around mine. Large. Familiar. Steady, like it had never left. My heartbeat recognized it before my mind did. Simon. I wanted to wake, to speak, to open my eyes and reassure him. But I couldn't. I was trapped inside myself, drifting. Pieces of sound filtered in slowly, footsteps outside the room, the faint scent of antiseptic, someone calling out for help. The neutral hospital. We were still here. The memory came back like a slap, blood everywhere, Emma shouting at me to rest, the charred body of a soldier crumbling in my arms. Then blackness. I had pushed too far, too hard, trying to keep the Alliance standing on legs that were already cracked. My body had given out before I could stop it. I didn't need validat