Kira's pov
I tried to scream, but nothing came out.
Just the hiss of a machine, the shallow drag of breath through something plastic, and a weight on my chest I couldn't lift. Breathing felt like trying to swallow through a pillow,slow, thick, wrong.
My eyes fluttered open, barely. Too much white. Too much light.
Where the hell was I?
I moved, or at least I tried to. My body didn't want to listen. Tubes tugged at my skin like vines. There was a faint beep, then another. Machines, machines everywhere. I thought,just for a second,I was dead.
But then I saw her.
Eira.
Slumped in a chair beside my bed, arms crossed over her chest, head leaning against the edge of the mattress like she'd just passed out mid-sentence. Her boots were still on. Hair a tangled mess. Jaw tight even in sleep. I would've laughed if my throat didn't feel like it was lined with sandpaper.
God, she looked like she hadn't slept in days.
