Davina's POV
"Why did you leave Meridian?"
The words turned my blood to ice.
Everything tilted—the ground beneath my feet, the oxygen in the room growing thick and suffocating.
My ribs constricted, my lungs gasping for breath, my pulse hammering so violently in my skull that the world around me became muffled noise.
I bolted upright instantly, my chair scraping backward with a harsh screech. My eyes went wide with terror, and only one thought blazed through my mind.
Escape.
That's what I needed to do—flee.
But Louise's voice sliced through my panic, hurried and frantic.
"We don't mean any harm, Davina," Louise said rapidly, her voice gentler now, almost begging, as though she could feel the terror bubbling beneath my surface.
I stopped dead halfway to the exit, my entire body shaking.
