Chapter Twenty-Eight: Catra

The scream ripped from Catra, echoing around the clearing, and shattering all the glass in Bethan’s windows. The chanting stopped abruptly, and then Catra’s ancestors disappeared one by one, in puffs of smoke.

Their presence was no longer required.

Bethan had also stopped chanting and watched with horror as Daniel clawed his way out the circle. The daisy ring that had acted as the barrier of the circle turned to dust and vanished into the wind.

Catra fell to her knees as pain struck her chest. She knew she wasn’t in real pain. And she wasn’t injured. She was feeling the pain that Daniel was feeling through the mating bond. It was excruciating.

And yet, as he crawled towards her, he remained completely quiet.

His hair had fallen out in tufts, leaving only some of his head covered. Daniel’s skin was gray and dry, mottled, and he had lost so much weight that his body looked almost delicate.

His arms looked like a stiff wind would snap them in two.