Demetria stormed down the corridor after Liam with elegance but something about her irregular steps gave away her nervousness.
He moved quickly…too quickly for someone who claimed to respect her…yet she followed him without pause, fury and dread tangled in her chest like thorned vines.
Her breath was sharp.
But her pulse was louder than her footsteps.
Every flickering light on the walls seemed to stretch and distort as she passed them, as if the world itself had slowed to match the pounding in her head.
Her mind spun… The Batsus were back.
Her chest tightened.
And then…
A whisper from the past slid into her bones.
A memory she never allowed herself to relive…unless in unwanted nightmares.
It broke through her thoughts like a blade.
The last time the Bastus were seen…that horrible…terrible night...
The corridor around her dissolved…
The lights…
The walls…
The marble…
…and suddenly she was twenty years old.
( Start of flashback… )
