Page 3 of Blood of the Fallen
Beyond the hazy wall that surrounded me, everything seemed to tremble. The faces of my enemies looked distorted, but the glow in their eyes was unmistakable. It was made of fire and satisfaction, of flame and righteousness.
A scream tore from my throat as a glowing ember popped and jumped at my leg, viciously searing it. As if they’d been waiting for an invitation, more followed, and the next thing I knew, agony—a vicious, hungry creature—was released upon me.
I screeched. It was an unrecognizable sound that came from the roots of my very soul. It was primal and raw, and it didn’t stop—not even as my skin and flesh started melting off my bones.
CHAPTER 2
Pain.
Pain.
Pain.
The world was made of pain, a searing anguish that erased everything else.
Time turned to pain, an eternity of it. The scent of burned skin and hair was also pain. My life—cut short, ruined by lies—was, likewise, reduced to scorching agony.
Their lies burned me. They had from the beginning. My innocence, my family, and the meaning of truth… gone up in smoke. My dreams, my friends, my past and future turned to ashes.
All that was left was devastation… of my soul and my very bones.
Since the moment they stole me from my family, they worked on tearing me apart piece by piece, undoing my true self and replacing it with one falsehood after another, until what was left was only a shell of who I was supposed to be. And now, the pain they’d wrought sought to undo even that person.
For the first time, I saw it.
The Academy was destruction.
They bred ruin for the wolf packs, the witch clans, the vampire covens, their students.
No one was safe from their overreaching arms.
The pain carved off my skin, exposing flesh. My throat, clogged with acrid smoke, snarled with cry after cry. I would never die. The agony would never end. I was in hell, paying for my sins.
Shadows loomed in front of me. The fire was devouring my eyes, consuming, relishing.
My cries grew more desperate. The pain, the pain… the pain?
It was ebbing. Death was finally ready to cradle me in its arms.
The shadows in front of me took the shape of hands. They hovered in front of my face. Four of them, and beyond them… two faces. I wasn’t standing anymore. Not tied to the tree. My back was pressed to blissfully damp earth.
“By all that is sacred,” a garbled voice said. “I think she’s beyond our help.”
“No! She isn’t! She’s strong. Just keep working.” I recognized the second voice. It was new. I’d only heard it for the first time some days ago, but I already knew its timbre. And it was she who had brought this absence of pain.
Ila… my sister.
I strained to see her face, but I only perceived shapes. What had happened to my eyes? I lifted a hand toward my face.
“Shh, stay still, Sheela.” Ila pressed my hand back down.
“Ila,” I said, my voice a weak croak.
“I’m here. We’re here.”
“Eat this,” that first voice said.
Something pressed against my lips. The thought of eating made my whole body convulse. I turned my head away, sending a bolt of pain down my spine.
