They say you see your whole life before you die.
I didn't.
All I saw was the ceiling. White. Fluorescent. Flickering.
The taste of metal in my mouth.
The sound of a nurse screaming for help.
And then—silence.
Not even pain. Just… silence.
It was almost peaceful, if not for the ache of everything I never got to do.
I never went to college. Never had a first kiss. Never left the damn hospital.
My life was a waiting room for death, and it finally showed up.
But then something strange happened.
I woke up.
Not in heaven. Not in hell.
But in the arms of a woman with golden eyes and magic swirling in her hands like liquid fire.
She looked down at me and whispered, "She carries the mark… The Manaborn."
And then I cried—not because I was scared.
But because for the first time…
I felt alive.