The fog grows denser with each step, wrapping itself around me, suffocating me as the air turns frigid and bites at my skin. I try to draw in a breath, but my lungs won’t expand, forcing desperate gasps from my lips. My hands fly to my throat, fingers clawing at my neck in a frantic attempt to breathe.
Damn it, just breathe.
I hear the ice cracking, and my eyes widen at the ice beneath me beginning to splinter, watching deep cracks begin to stretch outward around me. I can feel the icy surface shifting beneath my feet, almost losing my balance as I sway back and forth. My eyes widen in horror, watching as the cracks snake outward like a spiderweb. I go to yell, knowing it's helpless as I still struggle to breath but suddenly, a bright light bursts forth from the depths of the lake, cutting through the darkness with an otherworldly glow.
It blinds me. I can’t see. I can’t breathe.
And then the ice breaks fully underneath me, swallowing me into the freezing water.
My arms flail wildly, fighting with every ounce of energy I have left to claw upwards toward the surface, but the freezing water drags me down. I am sinking.I am drowning.
Panic surges through me as the light brightens around me. Bubbles erupt violently, blocking my vision from seeing anything except my arms that whip around me. I choke on the water, and I can feel myself slipping away.This cannot be how I die.As I fall, I see something move through the blinding light and thousands of bubbles. I catch sight of a shadowy figure, a dark silhouette sprinting with urgency across the surface to my left.
Someone is sprinting from where I came from.Florian?
As my eyes widen, the light brightens, beaming and heating up the water around me. The water begins to scorch my skin and I flinch with agony as I scream underwater, gurgling and suffocating as the pain is unbearable. A sharp burning pain singes at my bare arm, as if someone is digging a hole into my skin and melting lava into me. My veins burn, my lungs feel as if they are on fire despite drowning in the frozen lake. The water boils around me.
I shoot a fierce glare upwards, my eyes flickering between a shadowy darkness and a blinding light, teetering on the edge of consciousness as I'm about to black out. Stars begin to glitter at the edge of my eyes, and I start to feel no pain.
I am dying.
Hurry,Florian,I plead out to him. My heart screams for him to hurry.
This must be it.
And as I let my arms sway above me, letting the water take me without a fight, a white orb hovers in front of me. I can hardly see it due to the light illuminating from it.
“It is time, child.”
Chapter 22
“As the huntress’s blood courses through the Royal, she shall hear whispers in the air of her path. Of her destiny. If she strays from it, the callings will stop and eventually, she shall be burned for what she has done.” - Book of Azure
MY CHEST FEELS LIKE IT'S being crushed, tightening with an unbearable force. I flinch, my body curling as these arms hold me tightly, clinging onto me as if he is afraid to drop me.
Florian saved me.
Rescued me.
He came…for me.
I desperately try to suck in air, but my nostrils collapse with every weak and shallow breath, leaving me gasping for oxygen. My eyes, blurred and burning, flicker open and shut asI violently cough up water, each convulsive gag wrenching my body as I struggle to inhale and cling to life.
It burns.
Despite the frozen water, my throat feels as if boiling water is stuck inside me.
I can’t see who holds me, but it must be Florian. It has to be him.
“She is turning blue.”His voice reaches me through my muffled hearing.
But who is speaking? I can’t tell, because pressure pulses inside my head, a constant, torturous reminder of me drowning.Of being helpless. I groan, coughing up water and feeling it drip down my chin.Make this stop.This pain that is coursing through me feels unbearable, as if at any moment my heart will stop beating. I heave, feeling a heavy weight pressing down on my chest, squeezing the breath from my lungs. Each heartbeat echoes with a sharp, relentless throb that makes my eyes squeeze shut.
“We need to take her to the stone!”a voice from afar screams, shaking with each word.
As he carries me, my body sways in his broad arms and it hits me like a force of lightning crackling through the sky.A scorching heat flickers violently inside me, from my feet up to my heart, electrocuting the muscle. Awaking me from this deadly, frozen estate that is on the verge of killing me.
My nose inhales, and I finally take in a deep breath as my lungs fill with oxygen.His smell.The familiar smell of a burnt fire mixed with a floral aroma.No.It can’t be.It shouldn’t be.As I suck in a deeper inhale, my chest expands as I let out a shaky breath, gagging at the very last second. Leather fills my nose as these familiar arms hold me close to his chest.
