SAMIRA
Everything hurts. Ribs that crack when I breathe too deep, muscles that scream with each bump in the road, a head that pounds like someone's taken a hammer to it from the inside. But the pain fades to background noise because outside the truck window spreads a world I never knew was real.
Trees blur past, not the carefully maintained oaks of Bloodthrone's grounds but wild things that reach across the road like they're trying to touch each other. The sky stretches wider than I thought possible—I always saw it in rectangles through kitchen windows, in glimpses stolen between buildings. Now it goes on forever, blue bleeding into clouds that look soft enough to sleep on.
"You're gaping." Gray's voice carries amusement, though he keeps his eyes on the road.
"There's so much." The wor
