The sand spat me back into the night like a weary beast rejecting a shard of bone too hard to digest. My breath escaped in ragged gasps, hoarse, as if the air itself was leaking out of me drop by drop. My heart beat—but no longer in rhythm. It thudded out of sync, with that dreadful slowness, like a poorly tuned drum in a war symphony.
The poison, devious and true to its purpose, continued its work.
It didn't explode. It crept. An invisible tide, slow, methodical, slipping into my veins like a river of black ink, icy and merciless. With each pulse, I felt my muscles harden then grow heavier, as if the world clung to me, determined to lock me inside my own body. My thoughts, once sharp as silver blades, now flickered like lanterns in a fog too thick. Clarity was fleeing me. And yet…
I held.
I held because I had to. Because it was her. Because in this night of gold and death, I refused to fall before seeing her through to the end.
And she advanced.
Lysara.
