I barely made a gasp as shards of frozen air bloomed inside me, expanding and filling every space where my breath should’ve been. I couldn’t inhale or exhale. My lungs were turning into solid crystal within my ribs.
This had happened before, but…
I’d buried it.
This Fates-forsaken nightmare had yanked it back up and strengthened the damned memory until I could feel every needle of ice.
“You can scream if you want,” Darian said. “No one will hear you under all that ice. Isn’t it more fun that way, babe?”
This isn’t real.
I fought to breathe, yanking at the ice restraints as uselessly as I had before. Panic clawed at my throat as my vision blurred at the edges.
A shadow of a figure caught my eye in the corner of the room. They were tall with the wrong proportions, and I knew it had to be the drude.
They lingered just inside the edge of my perception, like a smudge on a mirror. I knew I’d be able to see them fully if my brain wasn’t lacking oxygen.
I shoved at the memory, breaking the restraints as my basilisk power surged into my limbs.
The ice splintered.
I swung at Darian, screaming,“No!”
The drude and Darian laughed softly as ice tightened in my lungs.
No, that wasn’t right.
When I’d broken the ice cuffs, his power dissipated.
But then, warmth tugged at my chest. A thread of heat wrapped around my consciousness, pulling me backward, away from the ice, the bed, Darian, and the damned drude.
“Venom baby, fucking wake up!” Slater’s voice cracked.
Another thread of magic flitted through my brain.
“Grab on,” Kane’s voice came through firmly. “We’ve got you.”
The drude growled as the surrounding scene shuddered, like a rock being thrown into a lake.
Darian’s face warped, features stretching, melting into something monstrous.
I tore my ankles free, surged up, and shoved Darian away hard.
He fell backward off the bed, surprise flickering across his changed face.
“I’m going tokillyou!” I lunged for the corner, toward the drude.
My fingertips were coated with fatal venom, but before I could reach him, the nightmare shattered.
rune
. . .
The scream rippedmy throat raw, tearing out of my chest and piercing the air. I snapped upright, drenched in cold sweat, lungs burning as if I’d actually inhaled ice shards again.
Several familiar hands grabbed me, comforting me.
“Breathe, lethal darling.”
