Everything felt like it was underwater.
Not silent. Just thick.
Voices came to me as if carried through layers of river glass. Light fractured when I tried to open my eyes, so I let them close again. My body shifted, and I felt hands beneath me, careful but urgent. The scent of antiseptic herbs faded, replaced by cool night air brushing my face.
They were moving me.
“Careful,” someone murmured.
It was Aisha.
Her voice trembled, but her grip did not.
I forced my eyelids open just enough to see blurred shapes. The ceiling of the corridor above me sliding past. As we move from the palace.
Even in my haze, I knew its breath.
And suddenly the thought struck me, sharp enough to cut through fever.
The beast.
The dark-furred monster with claws laced in poison.
It had attacked the pala
