Elara POV
Four days of running and I was starting to forget what it felt like to not be afraid.
To not check my hands every few minutes for blood that might have appeared while I wasn't paying attention.
This morning I'd lost three hours, just gone, vanished into nothing, and when I came back Liora was staring at me with barely concealed terror.
"What did I do?" I'd asked, my voice shaking.
"You tried to eat a rabbit," she'd said quietly.
"While it was still alive and screaming."
Now we moved through the forest in silence, the sun filtering through leaves overhead, birds singing like the world wasn't ending, like I wasn't becoming a monster one blackout at a time.
"We need to find shelter before dark," Liora said, scanning the trees ahead.
"Somewhere defensible, the Shadow Guards
