Chapter 216
Ellie's POV
Karma.
That was the first word that drifted through my mind as consciousness slowly returned.
I blinked at the pale light filtering through the rain-soaked canopy overhead, each drop that slipped through the branches landing softly against my face.
Of course, this would happen.
This was exactly what I deserved for letting myself get dragged back into competing with Vivian.
A humorless laugh nearly escaped me.
In my previous life, I'd died protecting Dominic from an assassin's poisoned blade.
In this one...
I was about to die because I'd decided to hunt a wild boar out of sheer stubbornness.
Not a legendary battle.
Not some grand sacrifice.
Just me...
Flattened by an angry, two-hundred-pound pig with a broken tusk.
"Seriously?" I muttered weakly.
"How pathetic."
Then the pain arrived.
It crashed over me like a tidal wave.
Every nerve in my body screamed.
Agony pulsed through my limbs, making it impossible to think about anything else.
I groaned and instinctively tried to move.
My right leg obeyed.
My left...
Didn't.
The moment I tried to shift it, a blinding bolt of pain shot through me.
My stomach lurched.
Bile climbed into my throat.
I clamped my mouth shut and swallowed hard before I could vomit onto the forest floor.
"Okay..."
I forced the word through gritted teeth.
"Okay... just breathe."
Taking slow, shaky breaths, I pushed myself onto my elbows.
The movement sent another ache through my ribs, but they held.
Nothing there seemed shattered.
That was something.
Then, bracing myself, I looked down.
The sight stole every remaining ounce of courage I had.
"Oh... fuck."
My leg wasn't just broken.
It was destroyed.
The jagged end of my shinbone had punched through my skin, gleaming sickeningly white beneath the rain.
Blood soaked the forest floor beneath me.
"Fuck."
My voice cracked.
"Fuck... fuck... FUCK!"
The shout echoed through the trees before disappearing into the rain.
No answer came back.
Only silence.
Hands shaking uncontrollably, I reached into my pocket for my phone.
Nothing.
Panic tightened my chest.
I looked around frantically until I spotted it several feet away.
The screen was shattered.
The casing had split open.
Completely useless.
"Damn it..."
There was only one option left.
Dominic.
I hated the thought of relying on him.
But I wasn't walking anywhere with my leg like this.
Closing my eyes, I reached inward, searching for the invisible thread that connected us through the mate bond.
It felt faint.
Neglected.
Like a rope left exposed to years of weather.
Still...
It was there.
Dominic?
I waited.
Nothing.
I tried again.
Dominic.
Silence.
One more time.
Dominic!
Not even the faintest emotional response reached me.
Either he was too far away...
Or he couldn't hear me at all.
Fantastic.
I let myself fall back onto the wet ground.
Rain splashed across my face.
A bitter laugh escaped my lips.
"So this is it."
I'd bleed to death.
Or the boar would come back and finish what it started.
Either way...
It was a spectacularly stupid way to die.
Then something tugged at me.
I frowned.
It wasn't the mate bond.
It felt...
Different.
Stronger.
Almost instinctive.
Like an invisible hand gently pulling at the center of my chest.
The sensation was impossible to ignore.
It demanded my attention.
Ignoring the pain, I pushed myself upright.
Every movement sent fire racing through my body.
Using my hands and my good leg, I dragged myself across the muddy ground.
Inch by inch.
Every pull scraped my palms raw.
Every push made my vision blur.
Still...
I kept following that strange feeling.
After only a couple of yards, my arms finally gave out.
Collapsed beneath a low shrub was a tiny green plant.
Its fuzzy leaves glistened with rainwater.
The strange pull vanished the instant I looked at it.
As though this...
Had been what was calling me.
Breathing hard, I brushed aside the wet leaves surrounding it.
Curious, I picked one.
It smelled strangely sweet.
Almost like candy.
Without understanding why...
I knew exactly what I wanted to do.
Eat it.
The thought came so naturally it didn't even feel like my own.
Before common sense could intervene, I popped the leaf into my mouth.
I chewed.
The texture was soft.
The fuzzy surface made my tongue itch slightly.
It tasted oddly bitter despite its sweet scent.
I swallowed.
Then picked another.
And another.
Soon, the entire little plant was gone.
I sat there waiting.
Nothing.
"...Great."
I rubbed a hand over my face.
"I'm hallucinating now."
The words barely left my mouth before warmth bloomed inside my chest.
Not ordinary warmth.
Something deeper.
It spread through my body like liquid sunlight.
Comforting.
Powerful.
It flowed downward through my stomach.
Across my hips.
Then settled low in my abdomen, making unexpected heat rush through me.
My cheeks burned.
I instinctively pressed my thighs together.
Then the warmth continued downward until it reached my broken leg.
I froze.
The heat gathered around the wound.
Concentrated.
Then—
Snap.
Pop.
Bone shifted.
Not painfully.
Almost... effortlessly.
I stared in disbelief as the shattered bone slid back beneath my skin.
Fragments fused.
Muscle knitted itself closed.
Skin sealed over the injury before my eyes.
Blood stopped flowing.
The wound disappeared.
I blinked.
Once.
Twice.
Surely I was delirious.
Slowly, I reached down.
My fingertips brushed smooth skin.
No exposed bone.
No torn flesh.
Nothing but dried blood clinging to perfectly healed skin.
"...Impossible."
I sat there in stunned silence.
Finally, I grabbed a nearby tree and pulled myself upright.
Carefully...
I lowered my weight onto my left leg.
Nothing.
No pain.
No weakness.
If anything...
I felt stronger than I had before the boar attacked.
I stared at my leg.
The healing itself was astonishing.
But that wasn't what unsettled me most.
It was the fact that I'd known exactly where to find that plant.
Something inside me had recognized it.
Called to it.
As if some hidden instinct had awakened.
Before I could think any further, bushes rustled nearby.
A familiar snort echoed through the clearing.
The boar.
He had come back.
Probably expecting to find an easy meal.
Instead, he found me standing.
I calmly retrieved my fallen bow and quiver.
Drawing two arrows at once, I nocked them against the string.
The bushes parted.
One tusk emerged.
Then the broken one.
The scar across its eye.
The torn ear.
The beast froze.
So did I.
Its nostrils flared, releasing white clouds into the cool air.
A slow smile spread across my face.
"You're going to regret breaking my leg."
I drew the string tight.
"You ugly bastard."
The boar charged.
I released both arrows.