Page 250 of A Dance of Water

"What happened here?" Bastian’s voice was barely audible.

"Do not tell me you haven’t realized," Graves said gruffly. "Those are angel wings. The Queen of Luna hailed from the Above. Luella is part angel."

76

PLEASE

LUELLA

Pain—

It was all Luella knew.

As if fire had ravaged her whole being.

Her cheek was pressed against something warm and hard. She whimpered, burrowing into it deeper to seek safety.

She was dimly aware of muted voices, piercing through the inferno of agony that rippled out from her back.

"She’s awake."

"Lu, Lu,angel. Gods." A choked sound. "Can you hear me?"

She would know that voice anywhere. Az.

And the others…

"We must leave." Graves.

Wheezing breaths filled her ears, sweat slicking her back, but it was thicker and hotter. Blood. It dripped down her arms and fell from her limp fingertips, soaking her.

The air around her shook, trembling like her pain-stricken, spent body.

"Godsdammit, Lu, my angel. Please, you need to calm down. You—" A pause. "You will be okay. I swear it."

The vehemence in her demon’s tone awoke something within her, a desolate part that was succumbing to the pain.

She whimpered, feeling a soft brush of a warm hand against her shaking shoulder. She jerked away from the touch, feeling like athousand knives were burrowing under her skin, making a home in her very bones.

"N-no," Luella moaned, barely coherent. "Please, n-no—" She hiccuped. "Hurts…"

Her fingers were curled into something soft, smelling like crisp winter. She was just aware enough to realize it was Tharen she hung onto so desperately.

Something was on her back, dragging her down. Like an anvil strapped around her spine, pulling.

"She has to stop this. The whole mountain will cave in." Bastian’s voice drifted to her, muted to her pain-tinged senses.

"I know, fuck, I know."

"Tharen, Tharen—" Something was shaking the body she was wrapped around. Or maybe that was her. Or maybe that was the very realm itself.

"Prima, snap out of it. What happened?" The demand was low and deadly. Her raven shifter.

Luella was too out of it to realize she was reaching inside herself, following the five threads in her soul, desperate for any comfort she could get.

Fear gripped her, yanking her down the five threads. Worry, fear, pain—her pain, combined with theirs. An endless loop of pain that was feeding into itself, echoing back to her, all around her and?—

Another rumble. Even half-lucid, she realized it was the mountains around them.

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