Sleep finally found me, pulling me under with heavy hands.
But the fear never faded.
A scream tore through my soul, the agony of fire consuming me from the inside out.Flames seared my skin, carving pain into every nerve.I couldn’t breathe.My lungs straining desperately for air that wouldn’t come.
“Elira!”
I saw him, blurred within the smoke.His eyes blazing into mine.The fire was everywhere, wrapping around me like chains.Dragging me deeper into the abyss.
“ELIRA!What do I do?!”
The words barely registered.My mind was slipping—drowning in unbearable heat.
A sharp slap cracked across my cheek.The flames vanished.
The suffocating heat ripped away, replaced by the biting chill of the early morning air.I sucked in a ragged breath as reality reasserted itself in the frantic faces of my companions.
Theo knelt beside me, his fingers gripping my arms so tightly it almost hurt.His brows furrowed deep in worry.Tavrik stood to the side, eyes wide with confusion.
“Elira, don’t tell me it was a nightmare.”Theo tightened his grip.“You were tearing at your own skin.Screaming like you were on fire.”
I blinked, feeling the raw sting on my arms where my nails had raked across them.
It was bad enough I had to endure it every night.To feel it as though my body was truly being consumed by flames.Speaking it aloud would only make it more tangible—would force me to shape the horror into words.As my mother always said,to give them a voice is to give them power.
“Believe me, it’s just a nightmare.”
Theo didn’t look convinced, his eyes narrowing as they searched my face, but he didn’t press me further.He knew me well enough to understand that I didn’t want to talk about it.That some horrors were better left unspoken.
I closed my eyes, the nightmare replaying in my mind with merciless clarity.
Jagged walls loomed high above me, rough and uneven, like the very core of a mountain had been hollowed out.The firelight did little to chase away the shadows, casting writhing shapes that seemed to move with a will of their own.Around me, a crowd swayed, lost to the rhythm of something I couldn’t hear.They moved as one, their bodies pressed close.
No one looked at me.No one heard me when I called out.
I was frozen in place, my limbs unresponsive as if they were no longer mine to command.Panic bloomed in my chest, but I could do nothing but stand there, waiting.
Then he appeared.
A shadow at the edge of my vision.A darkness that moved with silent intent.Every step was measured, the weight of his presence enough to set my pulse racing.I never saw his face, only the way darkness clung to him, shifting like living smoke.
But his eyes—his eyes I saw all too clearly.
They burned into mine, dark and filled with something deeper than rage.A hatred so raw it stole the air from my lungs.
I wanted to move.To run.To fight.But my body would not obey.I was bound by unseen chains.Trapped within the nightmare.
Then, the pain began.
Fire ignited along my skin, searing through flesh.The agony was indescribable, a wave of blistering heat that peeled me apart, layer by layer, until all that remained was raw, exposed nerve and charred bone.The scent of my own burning flesh choked me.A scream tore from my throat, raw enough to split the world in two.
Then the darkness swallowed me whole, but still, his eyes remained.Watching.
I shook off the remnants of the dream, wiping a sheen of cold sweat from my forehead.
I need a distraction.
“I saw a river nearby.”I gestured behind me.“I think we could all use a wash.”
