Daughter of Darkness

Chapter 37

"Don't be afraid." A man stands before me on mist covered grass. Though it's too dense to make out anything around me, I have a strange sensation that I'm standing on the edge of... something.

The man is wearing a simple brown robe, clean but worn. His face is kind and average looking, though the wrinkles in the corners of his eyes betray his age.

"Where am I?"

"Waiting," is all he says. His eyes are a very peculiar shade of gold.

Before I can ask, pain jerks through my chest, like someone is yanking a hook. I gasp and fall to my knees.

"Do not fear, Talia Kinsley." The man glides over and place a palm on my forehead, burning where it touches me. "We won't meet again for some time. Tell your sister I won't allow her to take another from me a third time without repercussions."

The hook gives another forceful tug and I'm falling through the mist, through the black, into the nothingness that embraces me 

________

I wake up slowly, my mouth dry and sticky and my head feels heavy as a boulder. Opening my eyes seems to take forever and once I do, it takes a second to process what I'm seeing. My thoughts are sluggish, like wading through mud.

A bed. I'm on a bed. I glance around, taking in the others next to mine, the herbal smell of the room. The infirmary then.

My eyes stop on a very bruised Hale, slumped in a chair across from me. I inhale to say something then hiss, the act of breathing making my ribs throb.

His eyes flutter open at the sound then he jumps up, racing to my side.

I try to speak but my mouth is so dry, nothing comes out. He seems to understand though because he helps me sit up and lifts a glass of water from my bedside table to my mouth. It's lukewarm but I gulp it down.

"Easy," he mutters, holding me down gently when I try to sit up more. "You shouldn't be moving."

"Is this the infirmary?" I ask, voice hoarse.

"Yes... You-" he looks away, not meeting my eyes. "You've been here for a few days."

"A few days?!" I struggle to sit up, panic overtaking me swiftly but Hale restrains me.

"Calm down, you're fine, everything's okay. You need to stop moving though."

"Glad to see you're still as bossy as usual," I grumble, doing as he asks. He doesn't smile. "Why have I been in here for so long?" I rub at my aching head.

"Talia, you- you were in really bad condition. We- we weren't sure if you were going to make it."

And where he wasn't looking at me before, now it's like he can't look away. I take a second to study him as well. His face is bruised in a rainbow of colors, dark circles under his eyes and I can see the edges of a bandage peeking from the back of his head.

He sees me looking and drops his guard, showing the desperation and fear from the last few days. I can see words lingering on his lips, words he pushes down.

Then he's forcing a smile on his face. "I know what you're thinking- I look awful. But I promise that you look ten times worse."

I can believe it. Though I'm laying down, pain is radiating from what feels like all points of my body. Moving anything, from turning my head to wiggling my toes, it hurts. Yet, there's no pain in my stomach from where I'd been stabbed.

"Can to explain to me why I'm not dead?" I say lightly, regretting it when he flinches.

"You were," he rasps. "You were dead."