Sun Catch Her (Book 1: Three Rivers Deep series) COMPLETE

Chapter Twenty-Four

Disorientation gripped me as I shifted on a surface that wasn't solid. I was laid out on my side. The darkness my eyes fluttered open to was complete, uninterrupted, further increasing my confused state. It was hard to think past the heartbeat throbbing in my head. Where... am I?

There were voices. My hand went to my head when my pulse slowed. I could hear more of what was going on. I think the voices must have been talking for a while, the discussion taking place beneath me, though I couldn't put them into a timeline that made any sense. Had I been sleeping? Did I just wake up? No, no I had been awake for a while, possibly.

The voices are downstairs, and I am upstairs, back at the house. This is my pillow, I identified the soft lump my legs were wrapped around. I was on my bed. Why was it so dark?

And why did I feel so... A shudder shook my entire body, core deep, and a light sweat broke out, inducing goose bumps and more shivering. I was cold, but I was also hot. My mouth was parched. I wasn't sure if I had to pee or vomit. Come to think of it...throwing up...might make me feel better.

Coherent thinking was like forcing thought bubbles through a gelatinous mass of anti-thought pudding. One thought rose slowly after the next, disjointed, breaking the surface with an almost audible pop. Ugh, what was wrong with me? Did I have the flu?

A stab of nausea shot through my middle and I wretched and curled in on myself, wrapping my arms around the pillow in a desperate hug.

The voices were becoming angry. The heated discussion broke off when a yelp of agony escaped me—another stab, but higher this time in my chest. I held the pillow to my face, biting it as I waited for the wave of pain to crest, then wash away. The house became silent, except for my harsh respiration.

"Aurora?" Someone called out from somewhere close. Inhaling in frustration, the struggle to lift my head eased when I realized my hair was pinned under my arm. I finally got free enough to sit upright, still clinging to the pillow—and I found myself staring up into a cloudless storm. What in the...?

Fear seized me as the absolute black was sliced by ribbons of light, white-hot arcs of power streaked in jagged, soundless, erratic patterns. A storm indoors. It was impossible. It was irrational. It was terrifying. I threw my pillow at it and sprang away, bare feet hammering across the floor as I fled.

I was jerked to a sudden halt when a blanket was thrown over my head and arms wrapped around my waist. Breathing hard but not fighting it, I dangled in mid-air and reached out, fingers touching something solid inches away from my nose; he had caught me before I ran headfirst into the wall.

He said my name again, telling me that things were going to be okay, given time. His voice was muffled as the sound of my pounding heart filled my ears.

"Alex?" I said as the blanket shifted, and he lowered me until my feet found the floor.

Turning in his arms, I hugged his waist through the blanket, just now recognizing it as the sheet from my bed—not the slippery blanket from the other night. The cotton fabric was a cool, dry whisper across my skin.

His voice was better heard as a vibration in his chest as he tightened his arms to press me close. "I must have been gone for way too long if you're mistaking me for the sodden one."

Micah. "Micah, you're back?"

He grunted when my grip on him squeezed. "You found me in the woods."

His chest expanded, inhaling, when my hold loosened. "You say that as if you think it was a dream." His voice wavered some.

I could smell his apprehension, spicy hot, through the sheet. He was worried about something, the emotion overwhelming the anger leftover from arguing, presumably with Indy.