Sevika’s world was a blur of pain and flickering light. Blood pooled in her mouth, the taste sharp and metallic. She could barely breathe, her ribs aching with every shallow gasp. The cold, wet stone beneath her cheek was a stark contrast to the searing heat from her shattered mechanical arm. Shimmer leaked from the fractured mechanisms, hissing as it met the ground.

Her one good eye flickered open, hazy, unfocused. She could hear footsteps—steady, approaching. A voice, but the words were distant, muffled, like they were coming through water.

Then hands—on her shoulder, near her ruined arm. Instinct surged through the pain. A growl ripped from her throat, weak but full of warning. She tried to move, tried to shove away whoever dared come near, but her body refused to obey. A sharp pulse of agony shot up her side, forcing a ragged, shuddering breath from her lips.

Her vision swam, shifting between the present and the past—Silco’s cold gaze, Jinx’s manic grin, the betrayal, the fall. She was nothing if not strong. But now? Now she was broken, leaking, vulnerable.

Her fingers twitched, grasping at air, at nothing. She wanted to curse, to spit venom at the one who found her in this pathetic state, but all she could manage was a rasp of breath. The shimmer continued to drip, each drop a reminder of how far she’d fallen.

And still, you didn’t leave, even as her vision faded to black.