oe
eaved his torso onto a patch of damp grass, my vision was spotting with black. I collapsed bes
istening to the rush of the stream and
irling, but they were beginning to settle, to organize themselves. The pain
of it all was Cass
you thoroughly 'quiet'-just like your mother,
he physical weakness. The hurt of the girl I used to be was
hands, at the ugly blotches
t, my voice a raw rasp. "You owe her. I'm going
iron in the churning sea of my new reality. I
t down now, replaced by the cool, analytical thin
woods. Underneath, his chest was a landscape of hard muscle, but it was marred by something else. A network of black
flinched back. It was a familiar energy, a wilder, more ancient cousin to the poison that was slowly killing me.My System, the fragments of knowled
pothermia. The curse was probably fighting it, but the c
ds. No shelter. N
gy, to stand, but my body refu
nd desperate, began to form. He was burning with
the dry underside of his shirt and used it to wipe some of the water
ay down b
wrapped my arms around his torso, pulling myself as close as I could get. My teeth chattered, my body shakin
de full contact with
sn't just heat. It was energy. It flowed into my veins, a minuscule current in a drie
idened in
turned, its tone stil
e, were aristocratic and severe. He looked like a king. A very dangerous
augh escaping my chapped lips. "Hammer, my a
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