Truth ? (2)

Aeliana had believed.

For the first time in years, she had dared to think—maybe.

Maybe she could live. Maybe she could be cured. Maybe the future was something she could grasp, something more than lingering in the shadows of her own weakness, waiting for the inevitable.

She had begun to believe in people.

She had begun to believe in him.

But this…

This was wrong.

The pain was unnatural, abnormal, far beyond the sickness that had plagued her for so long.

A fresh wave of agony wracked through her, stealing the breath from her lungs. She collapsed fully onto her side, her body seizing violently. The cold stone of the cavern bit into her cheek, her fingers twitching against the unyielding ground.

And then—the blood.