Chapter 5 - 1

EVANGELINE POINT OF VIEW

Something is wrong with me.

I wake up Thursday morning feeling like someone drained all the life from my body. My arms shake when I try to lift them. My legs wobble when I stand. Even breathing feels hard, like the air has turned thick as mud.

My wolf is silent. Completely silent. She's always been quiet, but this is different. This is like she's... gone.

She used to hum in my chest when I was scared. Whisper courage when I wanted to run. In the darkest moments after Uncle Marcus died, she would curl around my heart and promise we'd survive together.

Now there's just emptiness where she should be.

I stumble to the bathroom and splash cold water on my face. The girl staring back at me in the mirror looks sick. Pale. Hollow. Like a ghost of who I used to be.

"Get it together," I whisper to my reflection. But my voice sounds weak. Fragile.

The walk to school takes twice as long as usual. Every step feels like I'm walking through sand. My backpack weighs a thousand pounds. By the time I reach the front doors, I'm sweating despite the cool morning air.

Students push past me without a second glance. Their energy feels overwhelming. Bright and sharp against my dullness. I have to grab the wall to keep from falling over.

What's happening to me?

In first period, I can barely hold my pencil. My handwriting looks like a child's scribbles. Professor Kane calls on me twice, but the words swim together on the page. I can't focus. Can't think.

"Miss Cross?" His voice sounds far away. "Are you feeling alright?"

I nod because speaking feels like too much work. He frowns but doesn't push.

During the break between classes, I lean against my locker and close my eyes. The hallway noise pounds against my skull like hammers. Everything is too loud. Too bright. Too much.

"Look at her," someone whispers. "She looks terrible."

"Good," another voice replies. "Maybe she'll finally get the message."

Their words barely register. I'm too tired to care about whispers anymore. Too drained to feel the sting of their cruelty.

A shadow falls across me. I open my eyes to see Derek Morgan standing there with that same cruel smile from yesterday. But today, something is different. There's satisfaction in his eyes. Like he knows something I don't.

"Not feeling well?" he asks with fake concern.

I don't answer. Can't answer. My tongue feels heavy in my mouth.

"That's too bad," he continues. "I heard being rejected by your mate can make you sick. Guess it's true."

He walks away laughing, but his words stick like thorns. Is that what this is? Some kind of sickness from the broken bond?

But the bond isn't broken. Wounded, yes. Torn and bleeding. But still there, pulsing weakly in my chest like a dying heartbeat.

The rejection should've ended the bond completely, but something clung to life between us. A thread. Frayed. Starving. Maybe because I never accepted it. Maybe because fate doesn't let go that easily.

Or maybe because even he can't fully destroy what the Moon Goddess created.

Second period is worse. The teacher's voice becomes white noise. My vision blurs until I can't see the board. I rest my head on my desk and try not to throw up.

"Evangeline?" The girl next to me touches my shoulder. "You look really pale."

I lift my head slowly. The room spins like a carnival ride.

"I'm fine," I mumble.

But I'm not fine. I'm fading. Like someone is slowly erasing me from existence.

At lunch, I can barely lift my tray. The cafeteria worker gives me a concerned look when my hands shake so badly I almost drop everything.

"You okay, honey?" she asks.

I nod and stumble toward the tables. But halfway there, my knees give out. I catch myself on an empty chair, but my tray crashes to the floor. Food scatters everywhere. The sound echoes through the suddenly quiet cafeteria.

Everyone stares. Points. Whispers.

"Did you see that?"

"She can barely stand."

"What's wrong with her?"

Heat floods my cheeks despite how cold I feel. I try to clean up the mess, but my hands won't stop shaking. A worker comes over and waves me away.

"It's alright, dear," she says kindly, her weathered hands gentle as she helps me steady myself. "Accidents happen. You just go rest now."

Her kindness almost breaks me. In a world full of people who want to see me fall, this stranger offers comfort without asking for anything in return. I want to thank her, to tell her how much her simple gesture means, but the words stick in my throat.

I make it to a table in the back corner and collapse into the chair. My body feels like it's made of paper. Like a strong wind could blow me away.

A small brown leaf falls from my hair onto the table. Dead. Brittle. It crumbles to dust when I touch it. Just like I'm crumbling from the inside out.

That's when I see him.

Ronan sits at his usual table, cutting his meat with precise movements. But there's something different about him today. Something that makes my sick stomach twist even more.

He's wearing a necklace.

It's simple. A thin silver chain with a small stone pendant. Dark blue, almost black. It catches the light in strange ways, like it's absorbing it instead of reflecting it.

I've never seen him wear jewelry before. Ever.

Our eyes meet across the cafeteria. For a moment, I see something flicker in his expression. Guilt, maybe. Or regret.

But then his jaw hardens. He looks away and says something to his friends. They all turn to stare at me with satisfied smirks.

The stone around his neck seems to pulse with dark light.

And suddenly, I know.

The timing. The sudden weakness. The way my wolf has gone silent. The satisfaction in his friends' eyes.

He did this to me.

Somehow, that necklace is connected to what's happening. To why I feel like I'm dying from the inside out.