Zara's POV
The electricity hit me before I could scream.
My whole body locked up as blue lightning danced across the lab equipment. Sparks rained down like angry fireflies. The smell of burning plastic filled my nose and throat. I tried to move, tried to run, but my muscles wouldn't listen.
This was it. I was going to die at twenty-five in a stupid lab accident.
"ZARA, GET DOWN!" Marcus's voice barely reached me over the explosion that followed.
The world turned white-hot. Pain everywhere. Then... nothing.
I died. I knew I died because suddenly there was no pain. Just peaceful white light and the feeling of floating. My mom always said there'd be a light. She was right about that, at least. Wrong about everything else—like telling me not to take this job, not to work with "those dangerous animals," not to trust Dr. Chen's "crazy experiments."
Sorry, Mom. Guess you win this argument.
But then the white light started fading. That wasn't supposed to happen, right? Wasn't I supposed to go toward it or something? Instead, everything went black. Cold. My chest suddenly burned like someone shoved hot coals inside it.
I gasped—actually gasped real air into real lungs.
My eyes flew open.
Trees. Massive trees with red leaves blocked out the sky above me. Not the lab ceiling. Not the hospital. Trees. The ground under me felt wrong—soft moss and dirt instead of cold tile. Birds screeched overhead, but they sounded... off. Too loud. Too sharp. Like someone recorded normal birds and played them back at the wrong speed.
I sat up fast. Too fast. My head spun and my stomach lurched.
"Okay, okay, don't puke," I told myself. "Deep breaths. Figure this out."
Except I couldn't figure it out because nothing made sense. One second I was being electrocuted in my lab. The next I was in a forest that definitely wasn't anywhere near Chicago. Had someone dragged me here? But why? And how long was I unconscious?
I looked down at myself and my heart stopped.
I was completely naked.
Not just naked—covered in something that glowed. Bright blue marks swirled across my skin like someone painted me with glow-stick juice. They covered my arms, my legs, spiraled across my stomach and chest. When I twisted to look at my back, I could see more marks glowing there too. They pulsed with my heartbeat. Thump-glow. Thump-glow.
"What the hell?" I whispered, running my fingers over them. They didn't smudge or rub off. They felt warm, like fever-hot skin. "What the actual hell?"
I scrambled to my feet, ignoring how every muscle screamed in protest. The forest stretched in every direction—huge red trees, thick vines, plants I'd never seen in any biology textbook. The air tasted different here. Heavier. Wilder. It made my scientist brain itch with questions I couldn't answer.
"HELLO?" I shouted. My voice echoed back at me. "MARCUS? DR. CHEN? ANYBODY?"
Nothing. Just those weird bird sounds and the rustle of wind through alien leaves.
My hands shook as I wrapped my arms around myself. Think, Zara. Use your brain. That's what you're good at, right? Figuring out impossible things?
Theory one: I was dead and this was some weird afterlife. But it felt too real. My feet hurt from standing on rough ground. Mosquitoes buzzed near my ear. Dead people didn't deal with mosquitoes.
Theory two: I was in a coma and this was a dream. Possible, but usually coma patients didn't know they were in comas. And the glowing marks felt way too specific for my brain to invent.
Theory three: Something in the explosion did this. Dr. Chen's experiment was studying dimensional frequencies in animal communication. What if—
A roar cut through the forest.
Not a lion roar. Not a bear roar. Something else. Something that made every hair on my body stand up and my brain scream RUN RUN RUN.
I ran.
Branches whipped my face and arms. Thorns tore at my legs. I didn't care. That sound—God, that sound—it was getting closer. Whatever made it was big and fast and hunting.
My foot caught on a root and I went down hard, scraping my palms bloody on the rocks. I flipped over just as something crashed through the bushes behind me.
It looked like a wolf. If wolves were the size of bears and had too-human eyes that gleamed with intelligence and hunger. Its fur was matted and dark, its teeth long and yellow. Drool dripped from its jaws as it stalked toward me.
"Nice doggy," I whispered stupidly. "Good boy. Stay."
It growled. Not a dog growl. A sound that rattled my bones and made my bladder threaten to let go.
Then three more appeared from the trees. Four of them. Circling me like I was dinner and they hadn't eaten in weeks.
I was going to die. Again. Except this time it would hurt a lot more than electricity.
The biggest one lunged.
I screamed and threw my arms up uselessly. The marks on my skin suddenly blazed white-hot, so bright I couldn't see. The wolf-thing yelped and stumbled back, shaking its head like I'd blinded it.
The light faded as fast as it came. The marks dimmed back to their soft blue glow. The creatures circled closer, more cautious now but still hungry.
My back hit something solid. A tree. Nowhere left to run.
"Please," I begged, even though I knew animals didn't understand. "Please, I just want to go home."
The biggest wolf opened its jaws wide, ready to rip out my throat.
A blur of silver slammed into it from the side.
The two creatures tumbled away in a mess of fur and teeth and snarling. I couldn't see what attacked the wolf-thing. Everything moved too fast. But whatever it was, it was fighting FOR me.
The other three wolves turned away from me to join the fight. Blood sprayed. Bones crunched. Someone—something—roared in pain and fury.
Then silence.
I pressed myself against the tree, shaking so hard my teeth chattered. Branches rustled. Something was coming toward me through the shadows. Something big.
A man stepped into view.
Except he wasn't entirely a man. Silver fur covered his arms and parts of his chest. His eyes glowed amber-gold in the dim light. Blood—not his, I hoped—dripped from his hands that ended in claws. He looked at me with those inhuman eyes, and his lip curled back from teeth that were just a bit too sharp.
"You," he growled in a voice that sounded like gravel and thunder. "What are you?"
I couldn't answer. Couldn't breathe. Couldn't do anything but stare as he moved closer, those glowing eyes locked on the marks covering my skin.
His expression changed from anger to shock to something that looked like fear.
"No," he whispered. "You can't be. The Marked Ones are just legends. They're not—you're not—"
He reached out one clawed hand toward me.
And that's when my body decided it had enough. My vision went black around the edges. The last thing I saw was the wolf-man lunging forward to catch me as I fell.
Then nothing.