Page 145 of A Kingdom of Shadows

Aurum stabbed me.

And I am still here... alive.

My sobs turn into gasps as I try to stop. I push back from Idris so that I can breathe. The whole room is silent, watching me, listening to my sniffling.

I press my thumb over where Darius had almost bitten me that night. My mouth parts, and I stammer as I look at my brother. Regret traps his gaze as he looks off and runs a rough hand through his stubble.

"I thought I had died."

He glances back at me, and I can swear there is a moment where he might cry. Cry for me.

"When we brought you back here," he starts. "We thought it was too late to save you. We waited for the worst and expected the worst. You lost a lot of blood, Nara. Not even Gus's blood was healing you."

"But then, after days, you finally came to," Rydan says, but I don't turn to him. I keep my eyes on my older brother.

"You're lucky to be alive," Idris says, his voice hard, almost in disbelief, as he shakes his head.

My breaths heave in fast and sharp, threatening me to lose consciousness. I stumble backward, my body heating up with the idea I have survived. Everyone starts saying my name. At least, I think they are because everything is fading away, and I'm nothing but air.

"Nara, wait—" someone says. I think it's Iker, but I'm pushing through them all, trying to get out of the room.

Nothing eases the burn traveling all over my skin, searing me alive. I step out into a hallway and take one look to my right, then my left, still struggling to determine what I see when everything becomes one mass of color. I start to run, pants breaking through my lips as I try to pick up my pace, yet I can't, and as I slow down, I clutch my wrist and stare at the untouched skin.

Aurum has Darius.

I am in Aeris, away from him.

I—

Something hard collides with me, but before I fall, hands come out to catch my forearms, straightening me. My breaths are sharp as I blink through the haze. I'm staring at a red gambeson coat and a white shirt peeking through the unclasped golden latches. I quickly tear my gaze free from the clothing and begin tracing my eyes over the person's fair skin before I pause on lips that I recognize and that fiery red hair curling at the neck.

Dread unravels from the knot inside my chest.

This isn't happening.

This can't be happening.

I force every ounce of courage to look up, and when I do, my breath is ripped from my chest.

"Nara," he says, his face pinches with apprehension.

"Lorcan."

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