Page 161 of The Ascended
My vision blurred again. The sounds were wrong—sucking, tearing, earth moving in ways earth shouldn't move.
Then silence. The ground sealed shut as if it had never opened.
I collapsed forward, gasping. My throat felt crushed, ruined. The world spun sick circles, and I couldn't tell if I was falling or if the ground was rising to meet me. And the pain. It was still there, poison in my veins.
Strong arms caught me before I hit the ground. Xül gathered me against him, and his skin felt cool against mine.
"Starling," he said, and his voice cracked on the word. His hands checked my throat, my pulse. His hand came away bloody. "Thais, look at me."
I tried, but my vision was fading fast. The edges crept in, and fighting it was fighting the sea.
"No." His voice turned sharp. "You don't get to leave. Do you hear me? You stay here. You stay with me."
He sounded scared, I realized through the haze of pain. The Prince of Death—he was afraid.
"Aelix!" he shouted, never taking his eyes from my face. "Water! Now!"
"Already on it." Aelix's voice came from somewhere far away. Then blessed cold cascaded over me, soaking through my clothes, my hair. Steam rose from my skin as water fought the unnatural heat. The relief was immediate but insufficient—my insides were still on fire.
"She's burning out," Aelix said, his voice tight. "She?—"
"I can see that," Xül snapped. His arms tightened around me, pulling me closer. One hand came up to cup my face, his thumb brushing over my cheekbone. "Thais, stay with us. That's an order."
I wanted to laugh at that—giving orders to someone who might be dying—but all that came out was a wet cough. Blood spattered his shirt.
"Too much," I managed to whisper. "Too much light."
"I know.” His other hand pressed against my chest, and I felt his power—cold and deadly and vast—trying to contain the stellar fire eating me alive. "I know, starling. Just hold on. Stay with me."
More water. More cold. But the darkness was inviting now, promising an end to the agony. Each heartbeat sent new waves of pain through me. Each breath was harder than the last. My eyes flutteredclosed.
"Don't you dare," Xül growled. "You don't get to die here, not this way. Not on my watch."
But my body had other ideas. The power had scorched channels through me that weren't meant to exist, burned pathways that mortal flesh couldn't sustain. I was coming apart, unraveling.
"Please," Xül whispered, and that single word held more emotion than I'd ever heard from him. "Please, Thais. Stay."
The last thing I saw was his face above mine, eyes bright with something that might have been tears. The last thing I felt was his hand in mine, anchoring me to a world that was fading fast.
Then darkness claimed me, and I fell into a silence deeper than death.
Chapter 38
Wretched Vulnerabilities
The screams torefrom my throat before I was fully conscious. My body convulsed, fighting against invisible restraints as the nightmare's tendrils still clutched at my mind. I thrashed wildly, my skin slick with cold sweat despite the inferno raging inside me.
"Thais." A cool hand pressed against my forehead.
I lashed out blindly, my fist connecting with something solid. There was a soft grunt, but the hand remained steady on my skin.
"Starling, you're safe."
The voice penetrated the fog. Reality slowly reassembled itself around me. The silk sheets beneath my body, damp with my sweat. The dim glow of crystals embedded in the dark walls, casting long shadows across the ceiling. The familiar scent of cedar and oranges and old books. This washisroom, I realized with a jolt.
I forced my eyes open, blinking away the remnants of terror. He sat on the edge of the bed, watching me. His expression was neutral, but I could see the tension in the line of his jaw, the slight furrow between his brows. A shadow of stubble darkened his immaculate face, and faint circles beneath his eyes suggested he hadn't slept.
"There you are," he said quietly.
