I breathe in and—
I can’t breathe in.
Spots dance in my vision. My whole body contorts with the effort of getting air.
I catch a breath, but barely.
Reach for my canteen, and it’s gone.
Blink and blink and blink again against smoke and encroaching darkness.
Through the haze, a new face.
A masculine, rough-hewn face with a full beard and crimson eyes, framed by two curling horns.
Goddess, this is a nice hallucination.
A big, strong, handsome demon who looks very concerned for me, swooping in to save the day before I’m done in either by the spores or the fae who want to murder me.
“Seren.”
I must be further gone than I thought, because the voice sounds nearly real.
“Here, let me help.” He finds my discarded canteen on the forest floor, gently splashes the remnants of the spores from my face.
It helps. But not much.
The damage is already done.
My lungs aren’t just tight, they’re burning.
Like all that fire Marianne lent me went straight down my throat and into my chest.
“Let’s get you out of here.”
I cough, and blackness encroaches again.
I breathe, and I’m in Callum’s arms.
A portal opens. New darkness swallows us. Rushing wind and midnight chill.
We’re at the Veil.
Despite the pain, despite the fact that I’m fading fast and might actually lose consciousness entirely before we get out of this Goddess-forsaken realm, I do have enough wits left about me to tell Callum what I need to.
Damn. I wish I didn’t need to.
I squeeze his arm to get his attention, and his crimson eyes immediately meet mine.
“Human…” I cough around the terrible tightness in my throat. “Realm. Take me to…”
He holds me more firmly against him, shakes his head. “Don’t try to speak. I’ll bring you back to the demon realm, to the court, and the royal healer Vayla will make sure you—”
“No—” Another cough. Actually, more of a wheeze this time, like any air I’m getting in is coming through a pinhole. “Human… realm. My sister. She… take me to her.”
A pulse of confusion in his gaze, deep furrows etched into his brow. “Who’s your sister? And how do I find her?”
“They’ll come… to you. At… the Veil.”
