True Awakening

Valerie’s POV

Everything happened too fast. One second, I was struggling to breathe under Corbin’s blood-soaked body, trying to piece together what was real and what was memory, and the next—

I was standing.

Not like someone helped me up. Not like I used strength or will or anything I could name. It just happened. My body moved on its own, like something inside me pulled the strings. My mind wasn’