The world smells like pollen and roses.
I sit up, eyes tired and heavy, glancing about me. I'm in a garden, laid out on a world of flowers, so beautiful, so vibrant, it hurts to look at them.
A small lovely tune draws my attention forward and I stagger on tired feet, following it.
The last thing I remember is falling. The black water swallowing me whole. The fire in my lungs as I clawed at my throat, drowning. The cries of the dying. And through it all, Rafe's gray eyes, cold as steel, as he let me go.
And at some point, I stopped fight the water. Or the death. I sunk. It was peaceful. I was tired. So... damned... tired...
My feet being me to a father tree, under which Thane sits, hunched over a large monstrosity with white cases that his fingers press into adeptly. "Join me, Valka."
I sink onto the bench beside him. "What is it?"
