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