Chapter 17

Waking up had never felt so strange before.

I swear, my mind had been blanketed with cotton and every sense was working desperately to make its way through the thick fluffy layer. Voices sounded muffled, thoughts felt muffled, even the lights behind my closed eyelids seemed dimmer than usual.

But then I heard the cry, the sweet yearning wail of a hungry infant—my infant—and reality slammed back into me with a vengeance.

My baby.

My baby needed me.

I woke wholly, eyes springing open and senses zinging back to full working order with a ferociousness that made me wince, for what had been muffled before, suddenly seemed doubled in intensity. The light from a nearby burning hearth made me wince from how brightly it flamed, and the voices of at least four people hovering around me made my ears want to bleed for peace. A searing pain in my abdomen caused me to gnash my teeth, not to mention, it smelled right foul in here, like blood and human remains.

Through it all, the crying child is