~IAN~

I shot upright on the bed. Lazhara again? What did she want this time? Pluck my eyebrows with silver tweezers? Maybe ask me to lick her boots clean? I rolled my eyes so hard they almost fell out of my skull.

The door creaked open, but before I could even turn my head, something slammed into me like a comet.

Ashval.

He launched into my body so fast my spine rattled. I grunted, grabbing my chest. The force knocked the breath out of me, but then… stillness. A powerful kind of stillness. It ...