Elien;
My chest rises and falls too fast, and my fingers curl into the stiff white sheets beneath me, trying to ground myself as I stare at the man before me. I'm trying so hard to process this. Trying to deny what every nerve in my body already knows.
I've somehow been sent to where Elián came from.
Sent to his world. To a place where Elien don't exist.
My lungs seize painfully, and I gulp.
I don't say a word. I can't.
My throat locks like it's been glued shut as Dr. Leo—no, Lioran-but-not- really-Lioran—steps closer with cautious kindness in his gentle eyes.
He shouldn't look like him.
He shouldn't sound like him.
He shouldn't be here in a world that isn't ours!!
Yet here he is. A maddening mirror I still can't bring myself to face.
An unwelcome ghost. I couldn't face him in BeastHeaven, and I still can't face him in Elian's world.
"Hey… slow breaths," he says gently with his hands raised in a placating gesture.
