Bonds of Beast

The Weight of Sorrow

Innana's Pov

The world around me blurred at the edges, and every breath felt like a stone pressing against my chest. The air was thick with the scent of ash and wet earth, though the fires had retreated to the horizon, leaving only blackened trees and smoking embers scattered across the landscape. It was quieter now—too quiet. No distant animal calls, no rustling of leaves in the wind. Just the eerie hum of a world in mourning, as if nature itself had stopped to grieve.

I pressed my back against the tree, trying to steady myself, but the ground beneath me swayed, like a boat adrift on the ocean. I shut my eyes, but the spinning wouldn't stop. My limbs felt like jelly, as if the strength had drained out of me completely. A lump formed in my throat, bitter and hot. Ayesha was gone.

I tried not to think about it—the look in her eyes..

The shock, the pain, the way her body hit the ground with a finality that made my heart crack open. I clenched my fists against the dirt, feeling the sting of my own nails digging into my palms.

"She's gone," I whispered to myself, as if saying it out loud might help me believe it. But it didn't. It just made the grief sharper, like a dagger twisting in my chest.

Liam shifted next to me, sitting cross-legged in the dirt. His clothes were filthy, torn from the escape, and his eyes were swollen and bloodshot from crying. He stared out into the distance, where the volcano still rumbled softly, belching occasional plumes of ash into the sky like a restless beast.

"You okay?" Liam's voice was quiet, hesitant, like he already knew the answer but felt compelled to ask anyway.

I opened my mouth to answer, but the words got caught in my throat. I swallowed hard, forcing down the rising panic. "No," I finally managed, my voice small. "Not even a little."

He nodded slowly, tracing lines in the dirt with a shaky finger. The silence between us was thick and unbearable, stretching like a chasm we were both too exhausted to cross. Both of us too worn down by grief to argue or comfort each other. The enormity of what we'd lost pressed down on us like a lead weight, and for a moment, it was all I could do to keep breathing.

I forced my eyes open, squinting through the haze. The landscape around us was scorched, but not entirely destroyed. The trees here were darkened and leafless, but some still stood tall, their bark cracked but intact. Patches of green peeked through the charred earth, defiant signs of life amid the ruin.

The sky was a strange, muted gray, clogged with ash that drifted down like dirty snowflakes. The distant rumble of the volcano was a constant reminder that we weren't out of danger yet.

"When do you think Khan will come back?" I asked quietly, more to fill the silence than anything else.

Liam's jaw tightened. "Soon," he said, though he sounded like he was trying to convince himself. "He's... not the type to leave anyone behind."

I nodded, though doubt gnawed at me. The world felt so unstable, like the ground could collapse beneath us at any second. I wasn't sure if I even trusted reality anymore. Everything was spinning—grief, exhaustion, fear—and it was hard to tell where one ended and the other began.

Liam leaned back against the tree, rubbing his face with both hands. "What the hell do we do if this place keeps going to shit?" he muttered, his voice thick with frustration.