My knees hit the ground.
A choked sound rips from somewhere deep at the sight of my brother strewn across the dirt …
Unmoving.
Skin bubbled and blistered.
His wide, unseeing eyes reflect the vast scope of my desolation. Reflect me—beautiful, dazzling death.
I drop my face into bloodied hands and scream.
* * *
My eyes spring wide, the howl from my dream alive in my sandpaper throat.
I focus on the low ceiling—on the lantern hung from it, drenching me in yellow light.
Lemon-yellow flowers.
Yellow tablecloth.
The air is thick and hot to match the sizzling pressure in my head, pecking at my temples like an angry, bone-stripping bird.
My frantic gaze bounces over four wooden walls, one pocked with a small window—a frame for the gloomy night outside that fails to make the room feel less cooped.
I realize my clenched fist is wrapped around my pendant, the chain so taut against the back of my neck I’m surprised the clasp hasn’t popped. I drop it, wipe the wetness dripping from my nose, pulling my bandaged hand back to inspect it ...
Blood.
Fuck.
I push up from the cot—
Crushing pain explodes down my arm, hazing my vision and ripping a wail from my dried lips as it all comes crashing back.
The fall; Vanth emptying his bottle of rum into the back of my throat; the way his warm flesh gathered beneath my nails; his vacant, moonlit eyes the moment before he shoved me overboard.
I groan.
Breathing through the pain, I flip the blanket off my legs with my good arm, then cradle my other at the elbow—every inhale waging war against my unhinged shoulder.
I think it’s dislocated. Guess Alon didn’t realize.
Crap.
More blood dribbles from my nose as I hang my feet off the side of the cot.
I have to get out of this closed-in cabin.
I rock to my feet, wobble, vision splitting. Another wave of brain-bloating pressure threatens to bring me to my knees, and I stumble toward the door, grip the handle.
Twist.
It doesn’t budge.
“Fuck!” Eyes squeezed shut, I rest my forehead against the grain. “Fuck, fuck, fuck!”
I can’t kick and scream and demand to be released without causing a scene.
