Adria: A Sarah J Maas Fancfic

Chapter Nine

It felt like my entire brain was falling apart. Metaphorically, of course. I wasn't sure if I would even be able to move with how badly my head was pounding.

I cracked open my eyes and winced inwardly at the crustiness I felt gathering in the corners. How long have I been here?

It appeared that I was in a dark cave, smelling slightly of mildew. The dim lighting shrouded my sight, leaving most of my surroundings to imagination. It felt similar to the area I was last in, the one in which I overhead Cassian and Amren.

I shuddered at the thought of the female's finger running along my face. She had been far too close for comfort.

The pain in my head was getting slightly better, but now there was an insistent burn on the left side of my body.

I attempted to reach one of my hands down towards my left thigh. There was some sort of fabric wrapped around my leg, seemingly too rough to be a bandage.

I felt around in the dark until my fingers touched the back of my thigh. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but my heart sank.

My leg was still bleeding.

I could feel the damp warmth of the blood against my fingertips, coating them in red. I drew my arm back up to my side, exhausted from just those small movements. My eyes felt rather heavy, so I gave into the feeling, letting the warmth of the blanket cover me.

I had nearly drifted off once again, when a soft glow appeared before my closed eyes. It seemed to be growing stronger, chasing away any bit of sleep I had left.

I opened my eyes and through my sleep blurred vision, saw the dark outline of a female holding a lantern.

I blinked twice, trying to get the blurriness out of my eyes. As the female came closer, familiar strands of blue hair came into view.

"Finnigan?" I croaked. My mouth and tongue felt very dry, I tried to swallow but the feeling persisted.

"Hey Adria." She said cautiously. "How are you doing?"

That was a weird question, I mean how did it look like I was doing? But all things considered, I'm just glad I'm still alive.

"I don't know... my head hurts a lot, and my leg is starting to burn and feel sorta itchy."

A fleeting look of concern crossed her face. "The headache is expected, after that much blood loss you're probably dehydrated and dizzy, and the medicine I gave you probably isn't helping with that. But the burning..." She trailed off.

She approached the side of the bed, squatting down so that she would have better access to my injury. "This might hurt a bit Adria, but I need to check it for an infection."

"An infection?"

"Yeah, the burning and itching could signal that the wound is..." She stopped seemingly searching for the right word. "Contaminated."

I tried to ignore my rapidly increasing heart rate, there was no point in jumping to conclusions. Besides, even if it was infected there was nothing to be done about it now.

"Itching could also mean it's healing though, right?" I asked hopefully.

"Maybe..." Finnigan said doubtfully.

She set the lamp on the floor and gently folded back the blanket covering my body. I could now see the dark splotches covering my leg and sheets.

Carefully, she began to peel away the fabric wrapped around my leg. I squeezed my eyes shut, unwilling to look for any longer. As Finnigan unraveled the final pieces, I sucked in a sharp breath - the blood was beginning to dry and stick, pulling in the wound.