Page 64 of Riftborne
She paused and took another sip of her ale. Her eyes shuffled around the room before she responded.
“It’s pretty rare,” Raine said before lowering her voice. “She’s a blood lock. Acid type, from what I’ve heard.”
“What exactly does that mean?”
“It just takes a few drops of her blood. If it touches your skin, it’ll melt holes right through you, down to your bones. Even healers can’t fix it. Apparently, it’s the most excruciating pain you could imagine.” She shivered as the words tumbled out.
“She’s the only recruit that the General has trained individually… Well, I mean other than you.”
My heart did somersaults as I downed the rest of my ale.
CHAPTER 24
The sensationof falling enveloped me.
The rush of weightlessness sent my stomach lurching into my chest—a tumultuous dance with gravity that left me gasping for breath in the darkness.
Time stretched into infinity as I hurtled towards the ground. The void that surrounded my descent was one of shadows, devouring any light before it could penetrate its depths. I strained to scream, but my throat was constricted.
I couldn’t make a sound.
Crack.
I hit the ground with an impossible force, the shattering of bone and sinew echoing into the void.
The agony was immediate, searing through every nerve. A symphony of pain left me desperate for a breath that wouldn’t come.
Yet, even as I lay broken and motionless, the solace of death refused me. I was somehow still alive, trapped within the confines of my own mind, a prisoner to the nightmare.
Thisone felt so real.
In the silence, I waged war on my mind, yearning for the sanctuary of the waking world.
I couldn’t spend another moment in this dream.
Wake. The fuck. Up.
With a violent jolt,I left the darkness behind me. My eyes snapped open as I gasped for air, chest heaving in a chaotic rhythm.
The echoes of silent screams reverberated in my ears.
Esprithe damned dreams.
I shivered. Tear streaks stained my cheeks, and my muscles tinged with pain. It was just a dream. I forced myself to calm, to steady the frantic rhythm of my heart.
Breathe.
The room around me came into clear focus. I gripped my bed sheets and exhaled slowly, repeating the word several times until I felt my body relax.
This was a new dream. Given the atmosphere, I wondered if it was triggered by what we’d learned during class. I shook my head, Raine was right. It really was nightmare fuel.
I crawled out of bed and prepared myself for the day. It was going to be a long one. For the first time, I would somehow make it through a shift at the Apothecary, initiate training, and my individual session with Laryk.
The thought made me want to creep back into bed and suffocate myself with the blankets.
I didn’t attemptany small talk with Ma today. My nerves were already on edge, and I had no desire to push them further towardsfreefall. Now that I was only working mornings due to the strict schedule of recruitment training, we were busier than ever. It was much easier to avoid awkward silences with the extra workload.
We spoke only in short, quipped sentences that were essential to the task at hand, but nothing further.
