Ardala woke achingly slowly. Her side felt like it was on fire and her head ached. Nothing made sense when she opened her eyes expecting to see the small austere room she occupied at Patty's dwelling. Instead, she was in a white room on a hard bed, breathing in time with a strange, quiet beeping. She turned her head only to see Francis sitting in the chair at the side of the odd bed looking at her with a worried expression. She wasn't who was supposed to be there, hadn't been the person she was supposed to see.
Her entire world crashed down on her as memory came storming back. Her side hurt because, in abject terror, she'd swum for the sea court, and they had warned her off with a pike to the side. And Vajra, he'd done the unthinkable and provoked a bond. She should have kept going, shoul
