Maria.
My legs felt like they didn't belong to me anymore.
Every step I took sent a dull, nauseating ache through my body, as though my bones had been rearranged overnight and never put back properly. I was shivering and burning up at the same time, cold sweat clinging to my skin while heat pooled deep inside my chest. My breaths came shallow, uneven, and no matter how hard I tried to steady them, my body refused to cooperate.
I felt terribly weak.
Not the kind of weakness that came from hunger or exhaustion alone, but the kind that settled into your marrow, that made you feel as though a single push would scatter you into pieces. My head swam, my vision blurring at the edges, yet I forced myself to quicken my pace. Slowing down wasn't an option. Never was.
Aidan had summoned me.
