CHAPTER 164
KATYA POV
White. Everything was white.
At first, I thought I was back in my room, staring at the white walls I had grown to call a sanctuary.
But the air was different. It didn't smell like the expensive wax of the manor or the faint lavender of Nonna's tea.
It smelled of chemicals. Of cold metal. Of death kept at bay.I tried to move, and the world shifted.
A scream died in my throat, replaced by a wet, pathetic wheeze. My back wasn't a part of my body anymore; it was a sheet of molten lead, pinned down by a thousand white-hot needles.
Every time I tried to draw a breath, the fire flared anew, lacing across my skin until my vision blurred into grey.
Whack.
The sound echoed in my mind. I flinched, my body jerking instinctively, which only sent a fresh wave of agony through my spine.
"Shh... Be still." The voice was a low vibration, cutting through the fog of my pain. I forced my eyes open.
