Page 42 of Witch Unbound
“But still a door.” Rune backs up and takes a run at the entrance.
Wood splinters.
“My turn.” Leif batters the wood with his frame and the ground trembles.
We’re making headway. I move away from the door and get ready to charge again. “Cora, we’re coming.”
* * *
CORA
I sucked in a sharp breath and stared at the glowing symbols above me. I was back. I was fucking back.
Agonizing pain ripped through me, washing over me like a blanket of fire ants, tearing scream after scream from my throat.
“Fuck, fuck. What the fuck?” Bramble cried.
“Help me get her into the lab.”
I recognized Ida’s voice through the haze of pain.
Arms circled me, lifting me. “No!” Hurts, it hurts, please. “No!”
Sobs, not mine. Someone was crying. Not me.
My throat ached and throbbed and an inferno blazed under my skin.
“She’s not healing! Why isn’t she healing?”
Bramble?
“Toxin in her blood. I need to neutralize it. Hold her still.”
A needle bit into my arm, insignificant in comparison to the blaze coursing through me.
“Why isn’t she healing?” Bramble demanded again.
“I don’t know.”
The world shook.
“What the hell?”
“Breach in progress,” Ida said. “Shady Lane is about to go into lockdown. Everyone without a key is about to get ejected.”
“Shit, shit. What about Cora? We need your—”
“Take this. Administer it again in an hour, watch her vitals, and—”
Bright light seared my vision and the pain peaked. A raw scream battered my ears.
Mine.
Ice spread across my back.
“Cora!”
Tor? “Tor…” My voice was a raspy whisper, and my vision was dark. “Tor, is that you?”
