A Fresh Start, A Forbidden Gaze, and a Swift Reckoning

Landon's POV

Waking up in a strange world was apparently karma's idea of poetic justice.

I blinked at the unfamiliar ceiling, my head pounding as memories flooded back. The frenzied attack at the club. The terrifying journey through what could only be described as a tear in reality. And now this—waking up in some kind of infirmary that looked like it belonged in a fancy private school rather than a hospital.

"Shit," I muttered, pushing myself to a sitting position. My body ached everywhere, but it was the weight of guilt that really crushed me.

Hazel Thorne. The girl I'd treated like garbage. The girl who, according to what little I'd gathered before passing out, was some kind of superhuman royalty here. And I was... what? A prisoner? A refugee?

"Mr. Sterling. Finally awake, I see."