Aria’s eyes widened, even strung out as she was, she could recognize when she was being attacked. Of course, it helped when her instincts were practically screaming at her to move out of the way.

But try as she might, she couldn’t. The pain that wrecked her mind right now was debilitating. She had never felt this much pain in her life, and it almost broke her mind. But she gritted her teeth and tried to push the pain down. She failed.

Aria was not one to back down in the face of ...