Raine was in so much pain that she was in and out of consciousness.
Sometimes, the pain came back in full strength, forcing her to retreat from reality that threatened her with unbearable pain.
At some point, she was uncertain about the line between the two worlds. It was so thin that she could barely recognize whether she was awake or not, even when she finally opened her eyes.
At first, there was nothing but warmth and silence, the kind of quiet that felt too gentle to belong to the world she knew.
Then she became vaguely aware of a weight pressing against her ribs when she breathed. It was followed by a dull throb pulsing through her back like a distant drumbeat.
There, somewhere between sleeping and waking, she found herself standing in a room she did not recognize.
The room was large and beautiful, bright with afternoon light spilling through tall windows, with pale silk curtains. The air smelled faintly of lavender and something sweeter, something warm and comforting. A mirror standing across the room.
"This is suspicious already," she muttered under her breath.
She looked down at herself. Instead of the worn healer’s tunic she had been wearing earlier, she was dressed in something far softer—an elegant gown made from pale silver cloth that shimmered faintly in the sunlight.
The fabric draped around her like flowing water, smooth and weightless. Raine lifted the sleeve between two fingers.
It was beautiful. "Hm," she said thoughtfully. "I could get used to this."
Her gaze drifted toward the mirror. She walked toward it. Her bare feet made no sound on the polished floor.
She stopped before the mirror. For a moment, she only stared. The reflection standing before her was wrong.
The hair was hers, long and dark as night, and the green eyes staring back carried the same stubborn sharpness she had always seen when she looked at herself.
But something about the face was wrong. It wasn’t hers, not completely. The features seemed blurred, as though someone had smeared the image with a careless hand, and the expression in the mirror was neither angry nor sarcastic nor tired, the way she always looked after days of working with herbs and sick bodies.
It was empty. Raine frowned. "That’s not—" She stopped abruptly. Her voice echoed strangely in the room. "That’s strange," she murmured in a low voice, afraid to create another echo.
The reflection tilted its head when she did. The expression staring back at her felt hollow, as though the person inside the glass had forgotten how to feel anything.
She stepped closer to the mirror, raising a hand as if she could wipe the surface clean and reveal the correct face beneath it. The reflection moved with her.
Then the blood appeared.
At first, it was only a small dark stain spreading across the front of the silver dress, just below her ribs, like spilled wine blooming into the cloth. Raine looked down slowly. Another stain followed. Then another.
The red spread rapidly across the dress, soaking through the silk as though something inside her had been cut open. The warmth of it soaked into the fabric, dripping slowly down the hem.
"Well," she said. "That’s a pity. This dress must be expensive," she murmured. The blood continued spreading. The reflection in the mirror tilted its head.
"I liked this dress." The blood kept spreading.
Somewhere far away, someone began screaming.
Raine froze. It wasn’t a distant cry. The sound was sharp and desperate, echoing through the quiet room like a blade scraping against bone.
She turned toward the sound instinctively. "Hello?" she called. The screaming continued.
It echoed through the room, bouncing off the stone walls and filling the air with unbearable noise. She frowned. "That’s... weird." She took a step toward the doorway. "Who is that?" she asked. Her chest tightened.
She opened her mouth to speak again—
—and the dream shattered.
Cold air rushed into her lungs. Her eyes snapped open.
The world returned in pieces. There was a dark ceiling above her, with curtains shifting in the wind, and a faint scent of herbs and old wood mixed in the air.
No more screaming, though. That was when she realized it was not someone in real life but someone screaming in her dream. Then, she turned her attention to her surroundings.
Someone was sitting beside the bed.
A tall shadow leaning forward slightly, watching her. She blinked. The face became clearer. Someone with dark hair, blue and black eyes, and a scowl that looked permanently carved into his expression.
She blinked again. Her vision cleared. The face looking down at her was one she knew far too well. She stared at him for a long moment.
Then she sighed. "Am I dead?" she croaked weakly. "I’m sure I deserve heaven. Why do I see a devil?"
A pause. Silence. She muttered.
"I think I should file a complaint. If this is the afterlife and the first thing I see is you, then the gods clearly hate me."
She closed her eyes again, and this annoyed Landon. The blanket vanished. Cold air struck her skin immediately as Landon yanked the covers away with absolutely no hesitation.
Raine gasped as freezing air slammed into her skin. "What—"
Before she could finish the protest, he crossed the room and threw open every window. The wind poured into the room instantly, sharp and freezing. Raine jerked upright with a startled shout. "Are you out of your mind? You don’t need to be cruel. Even in the afterlife, your temper doesn’t get any better."
Landon turned back toward her, clearly unimpressed. "You fainted again."
"Fainted? I thought I was dead."
"You were unconscious for nearly a full day." He folded his arms, watching her expression.
That made her pause. "A day?" she repeated slowly. Raine rubbed her face tiredly. "Good. That means I’m still alive." The wind continued howling through the open windows. She glared at him. "Now close those windows before I freeze to death for real."
But, Landon didn’t move.
"Please close the windows before your patient dies from the cold."
Finally, Landon shut the windows. Of course, not gently, but he shut them anyway.
Raine slumped back against the pillows with a small groan as the warmth slowly returned to the room. Her entire body felt as if it had been dragged across gravel. "Next time," she said weakly, "try shaking my shoulder to wake me up like a normal person."
He sat back down beside the bed. "You wouldn’t wake."
"Maybe you didn’t try very hard."
"I poured cold water on you. And it still didn’t work."
"You what?" Raine glared at him. "That explains why I feel like a drowned corpse."
"You looked like one."
Raine rubbed her temple. "Wonderful."
Silence settled briefly between them. Then she glanced around the room. It was Landon’s room. The same one she had visited dozens of times during the past weeks. However, the flowers were gone.
She slowly turned back to him. "What happened?"
There was a moment of silence before Landon answered. "The healer you interrupted earlier examined the flowers." He studied Raine’s expression, which was darkened. "They weren’t water lilies."
She had already had a suspicion about that. The pain she experienced indicated something darker, something more dangerous and lethal than water lilies interacting with starroot. But she didn’t say anything. She let him continue.
"They were Azicus."
Raine exhaled slowly. "Of course they were." She turned her gaze to the window, looking at the imaginary flowers that weren’t there.
"You recognized it." Landon leaned forward slightly.
"I would be ashamed to call myself a healer if I couldn’t recognize it after experiencing such horrible pain myself." Her shoulders shuddered when she remembered that pain. "That plant grows near the northern marshes. It looks identical to a water lily if you don’t know the difference."
"Except Azicus poisons shifters."
"Exactly." Raine nodded and Landon’s gaze sharpened. "And it also reacts violently when mixed with certain herbs." Raine closed her eyes briefly.
"That’s why the potion nearly killed you."
"Nearly?"
Landon gave her a flat look. "You collapsed."
Raine opened her eyes and shrugged weakly. "I collapse all the time. Dramatic, but not fatal. I enjoy dramatic scenes."
"You were convulsing and the healer confirmed your explanation."
Raine tilted her head. She glanced toward the table beside the bed. Several empty cups and crushed herbs lay scattered across the surface. Someone had clearly been trying different remedies.
"So, the poison that had worsened your condition wasn’t my medicine," she said quietly.
"No."
Raine closed her eyes briefly. "Well," she muttered, "that’s good for my reputation, I assume. I will be alive, at least for now."
"Ariana placed the flowers in the room." Landon’s face was unreadable.
"I assumed as much." She opened her eyes again.
"She said they were meant to brighten the room."
Raine snorted. "Nothing can brighten this room."
"She’s being questioned." Landon continued, ignoring her remark. "The pack is tense and the alpha is furious."
"Oh yes, I can imagine he is." Raine smirked, and Landon furrowed his brows. Suddenly—
"Who lashed you?"
The question landed suddenly in the quiet room.
She looked away first. "Oh," she said lightly. "That."