Blood roared in her ears, her heart pounding in her chest with the might of a thousand horses running in a storm. Frantically, she tried to think, but she was far too ill to remember the last time she’d seen it.
Nausea overpowered her just then, and she buckled over. She braced herself on one knee and held her hair back as she vomited the contents of her stomach.
Damien reached for her, rubbing slow circles against her back.
When she was done, she tried her best to stand and straighten, which was difficult with how dizzy she was. “I guess I had too much to drink.”
“You definitely did, but I don’t think that’s what this—”
His sentence was cut short.
Luna’s high-pitched cry pierced the air, echoing off the building walls. Her skin was molten lava, her sweat soaking her clothes. Desperately, she tore at her garments to free herself from their hold.
Damien clasped her hands in his, and if she could have killed him with a single look, he would have been a dead man.
She tried to rip her hands from him, but he was much stronger than her and held on tight. She was about to tell him how to get to hell when she noticed how he stared at her hands. They were emitting white light; it looked like she had little stars attached to her arms instead of hands.
“Hang on, Luna,” he said as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small green leaf, tearing it in half.
Darkness engulfed her.
She could see nothing. Hear nothing.
The air around her thinned, and there was a pull on her body. It was the strangest feeling. Like she was part of every plant that existed in the world and could move through them. Afraid, she gripped Damien’s hand tightly—fearing if he let go, she would be lost in the vast void.
A heartbeat later, the shadows holding her lifted and Damien gave her hand a small squeeze before releasing it.
They were in an open field, but where exactly, she did not know. The pain renewed before she could ask what had happened or where they were. The momentary pause now pushed the pain to new heights. It seemed as if a thousand knives were being stabbed into her body.
Her skull felt like it was going to burst from pressure—as if something was trying to poke through her forehead. She clutched her head, nails digging into her scalp as if she could hold herself together, but the pressure only worsened. Whatever was in her head was dragging her neck longer, painfully stretching her spine. Light moved like lightning beneath her skin, white-hot and relentless. It burned through her veins, bright and brighter, until it was all she could see. She arched back, a scream tearing from her lungs as the glow poured from her, breaking from her skin like cracks in porcelain. Her knees buckled, bending the wrong way with a sickening pop.
Above, the stars twinkled in the sky, unmoved by her pain. How unfathomable that world kept on while she was breaking from the inside.
She collapsed forward with a strangled cry, her fingers trembling—no,changing. Skin fusing. Nails hardening into something sharper, thicker, sprouting from her knuckles.
Her body was unmaking itself. Bones snapping, nerve endings searing, organs twisting as if being rearranged by invisible hands. And when she thought it couldn’t get worse, the thing trying to break through her skull succeeded. She choked on another scream and through her cries, she begged, “Damien, end this. Make it stop.”
But, the pain was never-ending. The light surged on, blinding, searing—and then, finally, blissful, cool darkness found her.
Chapter 8
True Form
Long stalks of grass swished against her body, gently waking her. She felt . . . strangely whole. A feeling of completion—of being reborn.
Luna’s eyes fluttered open, revealing a new panoramic view. The grass rolled into hills that stretched to meet the endless sky at the horizon. She looked side to side, her head feeling like a marionette puppet. Had she hit her head before she passed out?
A beautiful onyx unicorn stood in front of her with his head dipped low.Damien,she realized. Even as a unicorn, she recognized those deep green eyes. But why had he changed? His nostrils flared as he inspected her.
Her flat, heavy tongue twisted in her mouth as she tried to speak, making her words incomprehensible. With a shake of her head, she tried to figure out what had happened, looking to her surroundings for answers; soft grass lay beneath her and dim stars above.
White, unearthly flowers bloomed in a spiral circle from where she lay, their centers glowing like tiny stars, each burning with white-hot fire. Where were they?
Taking a deep breath to steady her racing heart, she inhaled the scent of earth mixed with something sweet.
“Easy there. Go slow,” Damien said, his voice soft and reassuring.
The sound made her ears somehow flicker forward.
