I don't remember much after that.
Just… pain.
A headache that wasn't a headache. I remember my heard hurting badly. My thoughts were just… static. And through the static, I could hear the sound of my own heartbeat, It was too loud, like a frantic drum counting down my very last seconds.
I felt my eyes dulling. Everywhere was fading to white. A blinding, empty, whitish haze.
Their voices… I couldn't tell them apart anymore. Kael's roar, Kain's cool command—they twisted together into a single, searing wire in my brain, pulling me in two.
I'm so goddamn tired.
I'm dying.
Help. It's killing me. Help.
I tried to breathe, but my lungs were lead. I was so weak. They were draining me. Siphoning my will, my life, to fuel their war over me.
Stop calling commands. It's killing me. Please, stop.
I felt the violent urge to move, but my body wouldn't obey. It was locked in a seizure I couldn't see. What is this feeling ?m My own body… it's not mine anymore.
This is how I'm going to die.
Somehow, I started moving. Not walking. Crawling. My nails scraped on the rough wood of the cabin floor. I kept grasping at tufts of grass, pulling their roots from the earth as I crawled forward for support.
The static voices sharpened for a second, cutting through the white noise in my head.
"…you'll kill her…"
"…she's dying…"
************************"
Where am I? What happened
"…is she going to live?" A voice I didn't know. A woman.
"I don't know. Her vitals are… unstable. The bond backlash was severe. Call Maeve. Now." Kael. That was Kael's voice, I had never heard him sound like that ? How bad was my situation???
Where am I? Am I dead? Am I alive? Who is saying this?
I was conscious, but I wasn't. I was
I managed to pry one eye open. The light was too bright. A strange woman with sharp, worried eyes moved in my peripheral vision. Kael was there, I could see his dark, tense silhouette hovering near the foot of the bed. I couldn't see Kain or Jax.
What happened?
A dull, aching fire bloomed in my chest. It hurt to breathe. It hurt to even think about speaking. A weak, pathetic sound escaped my lips.
I don't feel good.
My eye slid shut. The world vanished again.
***************
Think of happy moments. Think of happy moments.
I don't think my mind obeyed.it drifted back to one of my sad memories.
I'm eleven again. The floorboards are cold under my bare feet. My mother is speaking to someone at the door, her voice low and urgent.
"Mommy? Please don't go." My own voice is small, choked with tears. She turns, her face a mask of sorrow and resolve.
"I have to, my love. There isn't more time."
"But you need to explain! You have to explain nobody is telling me anything ???" I sob, feeling the terrifying weight of being left alone.
Her face crumples. "The bond… Riley, I'm so sorry…"
Strange men, not men(maybe werewolves (, their eyes glowed faintly. They took her arms, gently but firmly. She doesn't fight them.
"Mommy! Please!"
"Where are you taking her? I don't know you! Let her go!"
***************
I woke up with a gasp that sent a fresh wave of agony through my ribs.
Kael was immediately at my side, his chair pulled close to the bed. His stormy eyes were fixed on me, shadowed with exhaustion.
"How long?" I whispered, my voice a ragged scrap of sound. "How long have I been asleep?"
He didn't answer immediately, his gaze scanning my face as if looking for cracks. "Three days," he finally said, his voice low.
Three days. My eyes drifted down. I was wearing a soft, clean nightgown I'd never seen before.
"These… aren't my clothes," I murmured, confusion cutting through the pain. "What… what happened after…?"
The memory of the tearing pain, the two commands warring inside me, flashed behind my eyes.It made me shudder in my own skin...