Page 152 of When Death Whispers

And somehow, I know I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be.

The warmth of the burrow presses in around me—damp and pink and strange—but all I can focus on arethem.

They’re so close. Too close.

I shift slightly, trying to sit up.

Three voices protest at once.

“Easy—”

“Don’t—”

“You should not move.”

I blink up at them, the ceiling pulsing gently overhead like the whole Evergloom is agreeing with them.

“I’m not dying,” I rasp, though my limbs feel like lead.

Hudson immediately reaches for me. “Here, let me?—”

Rad pushes in beside him. “You’ll drop her.”

Hudson scoffs. “I’ve never dropped her.”

“Not physically,” Rad says. “Emotionally? Jury’s out.”

Steo steps forward and kneels beside the nest. “Enough.” His shadows curl toward me like vines following a sunbeam. “She will rise when she is ready.”

I blink at all three of them, exasperated.

“God,” I murmur, “you all are worse than nurses.”

Steo tilts his head. “I do not know what that is, but I assume it is an insult.”

Hudson looks sheepish. “We were just... worried.”

And that melts me instantly. “I know.”

My gaze drifts over them—Hudson’s furrowed brow, Rad’s restless tail flick, Steo’s unblinking intensity.

It’s a lot.

But it’s mine.

And for the first time in what feels like forever, I let that thought settle in my chest instead of fighting it.

“Okay…” I say, breathy but firm. “But someoneishelping me sit up. And if you all try it at once, I swear to god, I’m going back to sleep.”

Rad’s grin is slow and wicked. “I heardgod, and volunteered as tribute.”

Hudson rolls his eyes. “No. Sit down, Satan.”

Steo doesn’t move—he only offers a single, steady palm and waits.

And I take it.

Because of course I do.

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