Chapter 22 What Power Takes First
Pain arrived slowly. That was the cruelest part of it. It did not strike like the forest had—with roots and fury and violence. It seeped into me instead, patient and thorough, as if it had all the time in the world. I woke to stillness. Too much stillness. The room smelled of crushed leaves and bitter resin, the air heavy with healing smoke that burned my lungs when I tried to breathe too deeply. My body refused to move. Not because it was restrained—but because it no longer remembered how. I lay there, staring at the ceiling beams, counting the shallow rise and fall of my chest, until panic crept in like cold water. I tried to lift my hand. Nothing. “Tala.” Kael’s voice—low, controlled, too calm. I turned my head slowly. He was seated beside the bed, elbows on his knees, hand
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