Page 112 of The Lands Defying
Down.
I feel weightless as my hair tickles my face, my arms reaching out uselessly above me as I sink deeper.
Falling.
Falling.
Falling with no ground beneath me.
I feel nothing else, sense nothing else as I keep my eyes closed and hold the blood in my mouth that wants to escape.
My chest burns, pain filling me with every shallow breath I take. My eyes sting behind my closed lids, my body just…done.
The beating of my heart slows and tries to pump more blood around my body, but it’s flowing out of my wounds at a steady pace. I can’t heal, I have nothing left in me.
Runa is silent, curled up in a ball, her back facing me. I wish I could reach out and comfort her. She knows I’m struggling asI have no magic left in me, not a sprinkle as a cloud-like feeling spreads beneath me and then, I stop.
Suspended wherever I am.
Am I still in the Unforgivable Sea? Is this what it feels like when it takes you into its depths and captures you?
This isn’t so bad. The pain in my heart is more than the pain throughout my body. Is that what others felt like when they went to Lovers falls to jump off the top of the cliffs when their minds became too much?
Did they feel free? Relieved? Or were they scared? Lonely? Desperate?
A whine escapes my lips and I startle, scaring myself with the sound as it echoes around me.
Where am I?
I breathe deep and take in the smell of cedarwood. It’s a comforting smell, and I drag it into my lungs.
But…how is his scent here? It’s cruel, taunting, and I want nothing more than to feel warm, strong arms around me.
I want Darius.
I want him more than I have ever wanted anything before.
He would make it better, he would hold me and look after me.
I can’t do this on my own.
A gurgled cough comes from me then, and the blood I was keeping in my mouth finally escapes onto my chin and chest.
Still, I keep my eyes closed.
I don’t want to open them just yet. I don’t know what I’ll find.
I’m still breathing, no water entering my mouth and flooding my lungs, so where am I?
I hit the water, and yet I feel none around me. I feel no clothes around me. I am just bare to it all. Whatever this is.
A deep whimper comes from my right, and I turn my head, my hair hanging beneath me. I feel a puff of air across my face next, and then a wet, cold touch against my cheek.
I jolt at the unexpected feel of it and slowly open my bleary eyes.
A black nose enters my vision first as I blink, and I follow it up the hairy muzzle until I’m looking into two piercing green eyes surrounded by black fur. The subtle marking of a crescent moon on its forehead glows gently, the color silver so stark against the black.
My eyes widen, and the large wolf tilts its black head, ears down as he hovers over me.
