Noah drifted back to consciousness like a man clawing his way out of deep, black water.
At first, there was nothing. Just a faint whine in the back of his skull.
Then, as his awareness grew, the phantom pain descended. It creeped in slowly and insidious, like embers under his skin.
His wrists throbbed from the iron bands, but that was almost… distant. What remained with him more than anything was the memory of the fire that had scorched him from the inside out.
His mind felt wrong. Fragmented. Thoughts came in scraps, scattered pieces drifting through the void of his awareness. But something deep within him strained, tugging those pieces back together. Slowly.
Piece by piece, his mind began to knit itself back into something resembling whole.
Then, he remembered.
The pain.
The screaming.
The endless burning.
Over.
And over again.
Terror slammed into him like a wave, dispersing the fog. His body shuddered, and his breath hitched against the chains.
