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“Do it. But she’s a half-shifter. You’ll need to give her a weaker dose.”
I didn’t have time to process what that small exchange could possibly mean, and why Kai would mention my secret heritage,before I felt a needle in my arm. I gasped, then blearily looked over and saw one of the healers was pressing down on the plunger of a syringe.
“What have you done?” I cried, jerking away, but it was like my limbs were made of lead. My magic petered out, and my eyelids were too heavy to hold open.
“You’re an amazing healer,” the woman said quietly. “You’ve done more than anyone could ever ask for you. It’s time to rest.”
“No, no, no, no, no, no,” I sobbed, fighting it, trying to stay awake so I could help. They didn’t understand what they were up against, and how could they?
“Hey, it’s okay,” Kai soothed, boldly picking me up like a child. His warm chest was now an anchor, and I clung to it with the last of my strength. “You have to rest now, Ayla. You can’t save him if you kill yourself trying.”
I wanted to argue with him, to tell him I’d gladly give my life if it meant the innocent didn’t have to suffer anymore, but instead I slipped down into the blackness of my own mind.
The first thing I felt upon waking was getting crushed under something heavy, something so thick and immovable that I was suffocating. Panicking, I tried to wiggle out from under it, but my body wouldn’t move, forced to lay there in the nothingness and die.
Whimpering, I called for help, but my mouth didn’t work. My tongue was firmly cemented in place, leaving me trapped in purgatory.
“Hey, hey, I’m here. It’s okay, Ayla. You’re safe.”
I knew that voice, yet my mind wouldn’t say who it belonged to. Then something warm and damp moved over my eyes while something much cooler dabbed at my forehead.
“Do you think if I helped prop you up, you could drink?”
Drink? How could I drink if I couldn’t even swallow? Couldn’t breathe. I didn’t know, and it wasn’t like I could answer, stuck in a haze of terrible pain and torment.
“Take her inhibitor bracelet off.”
“What?”
“Take it off. I’m gonna help her.”
There was a pause, then I felt movement at my arm. I wasn’t sure how they could lift the limb, but somehow, they did, and the darkness around me warped.
Hey there.
Wait, I knew that voice. I didn’t know how I managed, but I turned my head to the side and saw Darla lying next to me in the warping nothingness around us.
I wanted to ask how she was there, or what she was doing, but I didn’t know how. I wasn’t a psychic, and my brain felt like scrambled eggs.
Shh, shh, it’s okay. You don’t have to say anything. I’m here to help, okay?
She reached over, and her hand moved through the weight on top of me like it didn’t exist, her long, elegant fingers intertwining with mine.
I know you’re scared right now, but I promise you’re okay. I’m going to help you get out of here.
How could I get out when I couldn’t even breathe?
All you have to do is let me take you out of here, okay? This isn’t a real place, I promise. It’s just a little pocket of awful you’re stuck in right now.
That… didn’t sound real, yet I managed a nod. I was so scared, and so cold, I just wanted to be myself again.
I’m gonna pull really hard now. It might be scary, but I need you to keep following me. Can you do that?
Yeah. Yeah, I could.
She gave me a beat, then her hand tightened around mine andyanked.
Abruptly, the weight on top of me was gone, and we were flying up into the nothingness, spinning around and ricocheting through the abysmal black.
