Chapter 10 Prettiest Corpse in Haven-9
Rhea POV
Before breath came back, I dreamed.
There was no body, no pain, just heat and darkness, and the smell of scorched metal.
Three shapes circled me in the void, their voices braided through the air like a storm.
"One burns. One hunts. One feeds."
Then silence.
And a whisper, soft as smoke, "You belong to all of them."
The vision cracked apart. I fell, straight into my skin.
_________
I woke gasping, my lungs clawing for air that burned coming in. The ceiling above me was cracked concrete, and dripping with condensation. The infirmary smelled like iron and disinfectant. Candles had guttered to wax stubs, long cold.
Someone had covered me with a sheet.
“Shit,” I croaked, shoving it off. “I’m the prettiest corpse in Haven-9.”
The words rasped against my dry throat, but the sound grounded me. I was alive.
Again.
I pushed up on shaky arms. The table was sticky with blood, all of it mine. The bandages on my shoulder were stiff and soaked with it. When I peeled them back, I found a scar.
Not a wound, just smooth new skin running in a crescent of faint gold. The wolf bite on my opposite shoulder pulsed to match it, the scar blazing like something under the surface had answered.
My reflection in the steel cabinet door looked like hell. Pale. Eyes sunken. Hair a tangle of dried sweat and soot. But then my pupils narrowed, slitted and sharp for half a heartbeat before returning to normal.
“Yeah, that’s new,” I muttered. “Super comforting.”
I pressed a hand to my chest. Three rhythms answered, one was steady, mine. One deep and slow, like a drum in a cavern. One fast and wild, skipping and snarling against the others. All alive. All in me.
“Perfect,” I whispered. “Now I’m a percussion section.”
The room flickered. For a blink, I saw faint wings of smoke in the reflection behind me, then they were gone. I squeezed my eyes shut, shaking my head.
“Pull it together, Rhea.”
I stood. Every muscle ached, but strength pulsed under the fatigue, like something new was wired through me. My body felt heavier, hotter, and my senses… wrong. I could hear a heartbeat from the next room. Someone murmuring in their sleep two floors down. The mechanical hum of Haven-9's old generators had a rhythm now, like it was syncing to mine.
I found my uniform folded neatly on a chair. Pulled it on, ignoring the tremor in my hands. The lock on the infirmary was sealed from the outside. Solen thought I’d stay dead. I picked it in thirty seconds.
The hallway outside was empty, lit by dull amber lamps. Haven-9 slept. The air reeked of smoke and humanity. My boots clicked against the stone as I followed the faint sound of voices echoing down the tunnel.
My name.
“…Ghost’s sacrifice will not be forgotten.”
Solen’s voice. Low. Calm. Final.
I stopped at the mouth of the lower atrium. Dozens of rebels stood in a rough circle. Candles ringed a folded flag and my knife. My knife.
Maris. Eron. Sera. All of them.
I swallowed hard and stepped forward. “Well,” I said hoarsely, “don’t stop on my account.”
Every head turned. For a heartbeat, no one breathed.
Then Sera screamed. Maris dropped her candle. Eron’s eyes went wide and unreadable.
Solen didn’t move. He just looked at me, sharp and assessing, like he was calculating how to kill me if he had to.
“Ghost,” he said finally, his voice too even. “Explain.”
I looked down at my scarred hands. “Wish I could.”
Maris was the first to move. She shoved through the crowd and grabbed my arm, fingers trembling. “You...You weren’t breathing. We checked. You were gone.”
“Guess I got better.”
Her breath hitched. “You reckless bitch.”
She punched my shoulder, then pulled me into a shaky hug before stepping back, her eyes flicking to the faint glow beneath my collar. “You’re burning.”
“Yeah,” I said. “Seems to be a theme.”
Eron approached next cautiously. “She’s warm. Too warm.”
Solen’s gaze stayed on me. “What happened?”
I almost said I don’t know, but the truth was worse, I remembered dying. Remembered the voice in the dark saying I belonged to all of them. Remembered heat and wings and a hunger that wasn’t mine.
Instead, I forced a smile. “Just a scratch.”
Solen’s expression didn’t change, but the air in the room shifted. He could sense it too. Everyone could. The Ghost that had walked into the room wasn’t the same one they’d buried.
Three heartbeats thudded in my chest, all out of sync.
My scars burned.
Something unseen smiled inside my skin.
Solen said quietly, “Get her to medical. Double restraints. No one touches her until we know what she is.”
I met his eyes. “Still me,” I said. “Mostly.”
But even as I said it, I wasn’t sure I believed it.