Chapter Twenty-FourMason floated in the small pool of water twenty floors down from the surface, fighting to keep his mind focused on his body and not the pit of dark inside him from which nightmares sought to grab him.
Fire races through his veins as salt burns its way into him. Hot sand is soaking with blood and he's unsure if it's his or if it belongs to the men he's killed as he dies. There are hands, dragging him over coals; fingers probing open wounds, words he cannot understand. Water is poured over his parched lips and he tries to tell them no. He is done, dead.
Then he is aware of light and the slow burning of his skin, blisters forming, salt on his tongue, fists that pound against his skin until he is sure that he will finally die, only to be denied again…with water and hands t
