Ashes Embraced

6

It had been days since Cara had eaten.

She could feel it now — the hollow ache in her stomach, the way her limbs trembled when she tried to move. A fever had settled into her bones, burning from the inside out.

She lay curled beneath the bone throne, half in shadow.

Unable to rise.

Unable to think clearly.

The cavern moved around her in distant sounds — claws against stone, murmured conversations, wings shifting overhead — but none of it reached her fully.

She had stopped trying to sit up.

At this rate, she thought dimly, she would die of infection before anything else.

Maybe that would be easier.

Warm hands seized her.

Forced her upright.

The world spun violently.

She couldn't focus — only flashes of red and silver through the blur.

Pet. Move. You are not permitted to die.

The words cut through the fever haze.

She tried to stand.

Failed.

Fell toward the voice.

She felt irritation — sharp, annoyed — radiating from whoever held her.

But strong arms caught her before she hit the ground.

The last thing she registered was heat.

Then darkness swallowed her again.

The next time Cara woke, she was burning.

Not from fever.

From warmth.

It took her several long seconds to understand where she was.

There was motion beneath her.

Slow.

Steady.

Rhythmic.

Breathing.

Her head rested against something solid and warm. She could feel the rise and fall of lungs beneath her cheek.

Her arm felt strange.

Her feet too.

Stiff.

Tight.

Something hard and dry clung to her skin.

Her mind slowly pieced it together.

Bandages.

The pain — the sharp, tearing ache in her shoulder and feet — was gone.

Muted.

Gone.

She opened her eyes.

Darkness surrounded her.

Not the cold, empty darkness of the cavern.

A cocoon.

A fold.

After a moment—

Two glowing red eyes looked down at her.

Vyrisa.