Chapter 23

• "Run, Elara, run!"
• I jolted awake, drenched in sweat. Sitting up brought a sharp, blinding pain to the back of my head, making me wince as I tried to focus. That voice-it was my mother's. I'd had nightmares of the day she left for as long as I could remember. No matter how hard I tried to forget, the memories haunted me, reminding me just how unlucky I was.
• "Don't get up too quickly. Your wounds are healing, but slowly," a man's voice cut through the haze around me. Dizzy, I turned toward the sound, but I was still too disoriented to hold my head up. My vision blurred, my head throbbed painfully.