After losing everything and everyone, Sari is forced to start over and make sense of a new world. Again. And while the evil in Spitta keeps growing, this time, she has to fight her inner demons as well.
Blaming her for their Alpha's death, Sari's ba...
"She's doing well," Leya said softly, with a reassuring smile sent my way. "She just needs to rest. As do you, Sari."
I couldn't. I had slept briefly, but I'd been brutally woken up by nightmares and the remaining nerves of the past days. The only time I was able to rest even a little, was when I was near her, when I heard her breathe and when I smelled her warm and homely scent, when my fingers were within reach of her warm skin.
We'd been here one day and one night already, and she hadn't woken up yet. I was scared she never would, but Leya walked in every now and then to check on her—and me, I supposed, and she told me the same thing each and every time.
She had overdone herself, she had drained herself entirely, and now her body needed time to recover, to recharge. It was normal, Leya told me. It was to be expected after all the powers she'd used, after what she'd put herself through. Just to get us out of Spitta safely.
Yet the sight of her unconscious was unsettling. It rattled me, and I didn't know how to handle that, or what to do with myself.
I couldn't rest in this room, and I couldn't rest anywhere outside of it. All I could do was stay here, keep an eye on her, make sure her breathing didn't stop and her heart pulsed at a steady rate.
And it did. Leya's words proved to be true, time and time again, but I still expected something to go wrong.
I heard the soft click of the door, which indicated Leya had left the room again.
It was smaller than Aven's chamber had been at my Ascension. It constituted just one bed, a closet, and a small adjoining bathroom. After I'd refused to leave the room last night, the priests had also placed a chair here for me, which had been my designated spot ever since.
My room was next to hers and looked the same, but the bed had felt cold and uneasy and my heart only felt settled when I came in here.
And so I stayed between these four walls, I didn't leave her side and I waited, and waited, and waited, until she would finally wake up.
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A small, soft grunt woke me from my fragile sleep. My eyes shot open, and when I looked over to Lotta's bed, I found her eyes fluttering open.
I rushed over to her bed, by her side, and reached for her hand. "Lotta," I breathed, and I sounded so relieved to utter her name.
"Sari?" she responded, her voice a little hoarse. Her stare traveled around the room when she asked, "Where are we?"
"We're in the Castle," I whispered, with a silent tear finding its way down my cheek. "We made it."
A relieved sound left her lips, her eyes darting around the ceiling. "How long have I been asleep?"
My voice shook. "Three days."
Lotta exhaled a big, trembling breath. "Aven?" she asked, quietly, carefully.
"Alive," I said.
Lotta closed her eyes briefly, and her gaze looked less afraid and more like her when she opened them again.
