“I will enter you as easily as that blade took his life…”
The warmth of Darius’s breath against her skin and the promise he’d made lingered. It dragged her from sleep each night. She couldn’t erase it from her mind, leaving a prickling disgust down her spine that wouldn’t ease. It only grew worse as the days inched closer to her birthday and things in Iron Claw grew more tenuous despite her new status.
Warm the bandages.
Count their breaths.
Keep the water just shy of boiling.
Breathe through your mouth when the smell of infection pulls at your stomach.
Use your voice as a lifeline for those who are hopeless.
Lyra repeated these things like a mantra as she moved between an endless list of tasks. She held onto them tightly as the sick and wounded piled up. Lack of sleep and suffic
