Chapter 35

Briar’s POV

Something was wrong with me.

I... I woke up with scales all over my two forearms.

They were faint, almost translucent in the morning light, but they were there. Smooth, glistening, and completely unnatural. Yesterday... yesterday I had been fighting with my own self, my own mind, and now this?

Yesterday, the voices had been louder, more persistent. They weren’t my children’s or anyone I recognized, but they were real. Whispers that slithered through my thoughts, hissing things I didn’t want to hear, things I couldn’t understand. The louder they got, the harder it became to breathe, to think, to function.

And then there was the other part—the part of me that wasn’t me.

It was like another presence inside me, pushing, clawing, begging to break free. My body had trembled under the weight of it, my vision had blurred, and my skin had burned like fire. I had locked myself in the bathroom, splashing water on my face to keep whatever i