Chapter 112 Ava: Waking Up
Darkness.
Light.
So cold.
It burns.
My lungs ache.
Something's holding me down.
There are whispers. Prayers, I think.
Chaos reigns in this hazy world. Something beeps incessantly.
I'm sweating. My hands are too warm.
… up.
What's that?
… Ava, you…
Who's that?
… can you hear me?
I struggle to reach the voice that calls me, but something sucks me away again.
Frustration simmers, but I'm too tired to fight it.
Ava, you have to wake up.
There it is again.
I know you can hear me, because I can finally hear you.
Hear me? Hear me what? Am I talking?
Yes.
No, I don't think I'm talking. I'm too tired. My body is crushed beneath the earth. Fire ate every last bit of me. I drowned. The air was sucked away.
You're alive. You're asleep in the hospital. You're just fine. You just need to wake up.
No, no.
No, no, no.
Waking is pain.
I remember the pain.
Just wake
No way.
here, in this
have to come back. This is not where
here, in this serenity of darkness. I feel pain, but it doesn't kill me.
die, Ava.
Alive.
Alive means death—
Stop feeling sorry for yourself. You
* * *
eyes crack open. They feel like sandpaper scraping against my lids. Everything is blurry, shapes indistinct. White.
Ava.
I try
palm. The slight weight of her head resting on my hand. I turn
Relief
swallow dryly, my tongue heavy and thick. "What happened?" The words scrape
into my arm. I want to protest but exhaustion
my name, but I'm
* * *
disinfectant. Starched sheets rough against my skin. An IV pinches the back of
but I force them open. The ceiling swims into focus—white tiles, fluorescent lights. A hospital. Selene is
Her relief washes
are here. They're asking me questions, one talking over the
I out?" I rasp, my throat raw
Selene whines softly. We
okay?" Lucas asks, way too close
pipes up, from my
hits me like a punch to the gut. I struggle to sit up, my muscles weak and uncooperative. Selene helps, bracing her body against mine, and both Lisa and Lucas rest their hands on my back to lead me
an entire process that leaves
my hand, connected to an IV pole with a few bags hanging off it. One of the bags looks like milk, and that one's connected to yet another IV line
waist. My hair is
as I waver, dizzy. You've been
the century. I cast my mind back, trying to piece together how I ended up here. Training with Jericho and
black hole in
"What happened to me?"
face, his fingers hesitant and gentle against my skin. Warmth flows between us, a feeling of comfort, and the urge to press
your wolf is trying to emerge. Do you feel any
to run beneath the moon. To be whole. But now, with all the strangeness surrounding my heritage, the idea fills me with trepidation. I flick a glance toward my wolf, disguised as a husky for a reason she has
She's way too big
sensing my
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