Everything went black once more until I heard a woman’s voice. I couldn’t grasp the meaning of what she was saying, but I strained to hear anyway.

“You came!”

“Of course. How could I miss the rare chance to see my little sister?”

Then the voices wafted away.

“There are different types of love,” the first voice said.

Blackness and deathly quiet.

Then the first voice came again: “She’s going to kill me.”

Finally, a voice I realized was my own spoke, “This was all your fault!”

A concerned face appeared in my vision. The last face I expected to see, but it soothed me just to behold her. Queen Rhea. I could feel her hand on mine as she whispered for me to please wake up.

I knew I was dreaming then. And just as I realized this, I regained consciousness.

Kris was the first person I saw the moment I was able to lift my heavy lids. She was beside my hospital bed, her hand in mine, looking down at me with sadness in her eyes. I saw her eyes widen, not believing what she was seeing: me looking back at her.

“You’re awake!” She jumped to her feet, hands covering her mouth as happy tears streamed down her heart-shaped face. “I’ve prayed to every god imaginable to bring you back. Someone must’ve heard me.” She hugged me and I winced in pain, but I was grateful to be awake, to be with her, to rejoin the land of the living.

“What happened?” I pushed myself up into a sitting position with Kris’s help. “I mean, I know. I think—” I paused for a second. My head was throbbing, and I felt a little disoriented. The pain felt like someone had taken a baseball bat to my skull.

“Ave, are you okay? Should I get the nurses now?” Kris sounded frantic.

“I’m okay, I’m okay,” I said, trying to calm her down. “I think it was Damian. Was it?”

“Yes. I still can’t believe it. But you’re safe. He’s in prison, he can’t hurt you again.”

Though I wasn’t sure about the safe part, I was glad he had at least been arrested. “He sure takes rejection badly,” I joked.

“I know everything, Ave. I’ve been told that you are a Stavros and that he’s a member of the Faction.”

My eyes widened in shock.

“They ordered him to kill you after their attempt in jail failed. Hudson and Drake are investigating how the Faction knew your real identity. They believe Damian has an accomplice and could be used as a source to catch all the Faction members. If Vlad wasn’t there, I don’t know what would’ve happened.”

“Wait, Vlad was there?”