Chapter 8: We're Going to Need a Bigger Bandage

My coven believed souls went to the Summerlands after death—a place with no suffering, fertile fields, and warm sunshine. All your pain disappeared, and you'd be reunited with loved ones forever. I always thought it odd that they had this belief when most of them were terrible people.

I did not land in that place. If this was death, it super sucked. Everything hurt. My head pounded, my fingers ached. Even my toes hurt. I felt hot and cold and bruised and sore.

It took me a minute to remember where I was.

And that I was, unfortunately, not dead.

A cool cloth touched my brow. I groaned at the feel of it and grasped for it, hissing as my arm exploded with pain.

"Easy," a voice said.

I heard nonsensical murmuring from somewhere in the room, then raised voices somewhere farther away.

"Hurts," I said, the word coming out garbled.

"I know, honey." The cool cloth swept across my face and over my neck.