Fate and Destiny (The Fated Series, #2)

Chapter 74 - Darius - Nightmares

I wake up with my eyes closed. There's a ringing in my ears fading quickly, and an ache in my stomach that's doing the opposite. I try to move but my body feels too heavy. Words won't climb my dry throat, and whatever it is I'm laying on is scratchy and unpleasant. I can hear muffled voices, some closer than others. Someone's crying, and someone else is pressing down on my stomach. My aching and tender stomach-

I shoot upward, my muscles barking loudly in protest, but then I'm hurling up whatever is left in my stomach. It's not pleasant. Chunky and tasting metallic. Why in heathens am I throwing up blood? Why am I throwing up blood?

I mean to say it aloud, but my mouth is a little occupied.

"It's alright, just let it all pass." Willa. Why is Willa here?

Everything rushes back then, and I'm hurling for a whole new reason.

I was almost swallowed by the Banevenin. I almost died but...

"What happened? Who's crying?" I ask, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand. That ends up being a bad idea, as I just end up wiping the black decay of bodies all over my mouth. My stomach threatens to lurch again, but I hold it down and try to ignore the stuff on my lips.

"Well, to answer your first question, your stomach was practically ripped open and you almost died," Willa answers dryly. She hands me a clean cloth and I take it, only lifting my hand off of the ground has my core screaming and I begin to fall. Someone catches me before I do.

"Way to be blunt." Garrison snides. He eases me down, holding my back so I can sit up without falling backward.

"Death isn't a blunt thing," she retorts, "-and it's Clarice who's crying over there." She nods behind Garrison, and I find Clarice standing with a grime-lathered Vanya. The latter is trying to get the former to calm down and subside the sobs and shaking hands.

"Why is she crying?"

"Experiencing a near-death of someone you care for is an emotional thing. Though to be quite fair, you made it plenty scarier than it should've been," she scolds, somehow mad at me.

"Always so dramatic," Garrison mumbles teasingly. I consider elbowing him, hard, but the pain in my stomach tells me that it'd be idiotic to do so. I glance down at myself, finding blood soaking my shirt and a long pink scar starting from my ribs and leading to the opposite hip. "Do you remember how you got that?"

I shake my head.

"What do you remember?" Willa asks. I take in the several bloody cloths and open bottles in the basket beside her.

"I remember trying the Banevenin's heart. Its heart walls were thick, so it was taking longer to burn. I remember hearing someone yell my name, and when I opened my eyes I looked up and found that the Banevenin's mouth was open above me. Then something grabbed me by the waist. All I remember next is falling, but that's it. That's all I remember."

She nods, looking completely unbothered unlike me. "A little memory loss is to be expected. It should come back throughout the day, but if it doesn't then it just means you blacked out. Nothing to be concerned about."

"And the Banevenin?"

"Dead," she asserts. "The villagers are in Litchelle and are being tended to by Siscilla and the healers. I have three of the Counselors of Thralia working on figuring out what makes the Banevenin's venom so deadly, and the rest of your guard has set a perimeter around us to make sure there are no more surprises."

I nod, knowing that's exactly what I would've done. They let me sit in silence for a moment, and that's when I notice that Clarice has stopped crying. She's not hyperventilating anymore either, but she is staring at her hands which are covered in blood.