Chapter 156

Thoughts raced through my mind at a rollercoaster speed—quick yet agonizingly slow. It was hard to process everything happening around me, but as soon as I heard the gunfire erupt from Thor's weapon aimed at me, I made my move.

I felt a sharp pain pierce through my shoulder as I was thrown brutally to the ground, a shockwave of agony reverberating throughout my entire body. I had never experienced being shot before, but the sheer chaos and violence of it all surprised me more than the pain that followed. In that moment, I even contemplated whether it might have been better to have taken a bullet to the head instead. Almost.

"Aadita!" I heard Xavier call out, his voice a mixture of fear and panic that penetrated my own feelings.

I didn't turn to face him. Instead, I wanted to show him—and my father—that the bullet had done nothing to stop me. It hadn't shattered my teeth or knocked the wind out of me. Above all, I wanted to prove that the bullet did not cause me pai