Page 68 of Tarnished Crown

“So I’ll behereall night, working.” He turned back to his papers.

“Oh.” I tried to nod, but it pulled at my back in a single searing, unbearable motion.

Neither of us spoke after that. I just listened to the perpetual sound of his quill scratching and waited for the medicine to pull me under.

My dreams were of darkness and pain, of being stuck in a tunnel with no light and no end while Ava chased me with a whip. Of mine and Davin’s family sobbing in the royal mausoleum.

Of black skies and storms that drowned out the sound of my sister’s cries.

Of an emptiness so vast that it sucked in all light, leaving me alone in the cold.

The scenes repeated, an endless, interminable cycle until a low voice pulled me out of the abyss.

“Lemmikki, wake up. You’re dreaming.” A warm hand clasped on my wrist, and I jolted into consciousness.

My heart pounded in my ears, and I struggled to take in enough air.

“Breathe, Lemmikki.”

I tried to obey the voice, but I was freezing, shivering so hard that my teeth rattled. The sound echoed strangely in my head.

The hand disappeared from my wrist and went to my forehead, then my neck. I leaned into the coolness just as it abruptly disappeared.

“Der’mo. Taras! Send for the healer!” The voice sounded panicked, but that couldn’t be right. Evander was never anything but calm.

Another tremor racked my body, sending white-hot pain tearing through my back. I tried to cry out, but my throat was too raw, and it came out a whimper instead.

Darkness claimed me in fits and spurts, voices fading in and out of my consciousness, none of it quite seeming real.

I heard my mother, singing a soft song in the lyrical language she rarely spoke.

My father’s deep brogue,Rest, mo bhobain.Yer troubles won’t run away in the night.

Theo’s determined tone, telling me he would fight for me.

Fight.

“Fight, Lemmikki. You’re stronger than this.” Somehow, that voice felt the furthest away of all.

But I wasn’t sure that was true anymore.

Hadn’t I been tired of fighting for a long time now?

“She’s getting worse. She needs--”

The next thing I knew, there was warmth seeping into my bones, stilling my tremors. I gravitated toward it like a dying leaf toward the sun, greedily soaking it in. Finally, a deep breath, then another, deep enough to inhale that smoky, earthy scent again.

Then nothingness.

CHAPTER46

Iwas sleeping on a rock.

A warm rock.

My fingers traced the ridged outlines, and I tried to force my eyes open, but they felt like they had been glued shut.

Until the rock moved, heaving up and down and bringing my entire body gently along.

---