Marian's POV
The first thing I noticed was the cold.
It wasn't the artificial chill of the hospital room or the breeze from the vent above me—it was inside me, seeping into my bones, weighing me down like I had been submerged in ice water. A deep, unnatural kind of cold that wrapped around my limbs and refused to let go.
I tried to move, to lift my fingers, to shift even slightly, but my body didn't respond. A strange heaviness settled over my chest, pressing down like an unseen force was squeezing the air from my lungs.
Something was wrong.
Aiden's voice cut through the fog, sharp and urgent.
"Marian."
I could barely hear him, his voice distant, like he was calling to me from across a vast, empty space. The panic beneath his controlled tone should have alarmed me, but it felt like my mind was drifting, slipping away from my body.
A strange dizziness overtook me, the sterile white walls of the hospital room blurring at the edges.
Then—pain.
