Chapter 108

Ash POV

The machines screamed.

A shrill, high-pitched wail of alarms shattered the sterile quiet of the hospital room, each beeping pulse a warning—a countdown.

A death sentence.

Ash's chest tightened, his pulse hammering in time with the erratic, frenzied rhythm of the monitors. His breath came sharp, jagged, uneven, but he couldn't look away.

Couldn't move.

Couldn't breathe.

Opal was dying.

Her chest rose and fell too fast, her body shaking violently, sweat clinging to her ashen skin like a fevered ghost. The color was wrong—too gray, too lifeless, too empty.

And the monitors—

300 beats per minute. Blood pressure 80 over 40.

Her heart was failing.

Too fast. Too unstable.

Seraphina moved like a force of nature, sharp, controlled, relentless.

"She's burning up—fever's at 105 and climbing!" a nurse cried.