~Laurent
I woke choking on air, lungs clawing like I’d been dragged up from a deep well. The room leaned in a little too close, the ceiling lines swimming until my vision steadied. For a long second I lay there listening — to Marek’s steady snore a bunk down, to Jonah shifting paper at his desk, to a dozen small dorm sounds that meant normal life was still stubborn enough to exist.
I forced myself up, breath coming in short, hot pulls. My hands went to my ribs before my brain caught up; the skin there was a map of purple and yellow. Bruises threaded across my shoulders, one side of my jaw throbbed where Gorath’s fist had met it, and a cut along my forearm had scabbed already. I should have been dead.
The shimmer unfurled across my vision as if it always knew when I’d wake. It washed int
