Heat of the Everflame by Penn Cole EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available for Free Download
- Author: Penn Cole
- Language: English
- Genre: Sword & Sorcery Fantasy
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 2 MB
- Price: Free
Shit.
I’m drowning.
Consciousness rolled into me like a cresting wave. Its current dragged
me up from the black depths of my groggy mind, only to curl inward and
slam me back under without warning.
My eyelids felt weighted by anchors. I tried to pry them open, but the
slivers of light peeking through were too watery, too shapeless to catch hold
of.
For a long, confusing moment, I flirted with lucidity, not quite sure if I
was awake or dreaming, until a growing fire in my chest heaved me into the
present.
I’m drowning, I thought again, the realization more urgent.
I screamed for help, and the sound came out gurgled and weak.
Something clamped over my nose and mouth with bruising force.
My throat closed up in a struggle to keep the liquid out despite the
desperate urge of my lungs to fill with air. An enormous pressure crushed
my thrashing limbs and held them still.
“Stop struggling and swallow.”
I stilled at the command. A cool breeze sent a chill prickling over my
skin, which I began to realize was mostly dry and definitely not submerged.
My eyes fluttered open, and the hazy world sharpened on an unfamiliar
face—a woman with dark brown skin and chestnut eyes, rows of thin braids
swept into a knot atop her head.
“Swallow it, and we’ll let you breathe.” Though her tone was calm, her
features were hard as stone and equally unrelenting.
I made a weak attempt at a struggle, but I could barely think past the
inferno in my chest, and the woman’s unconcerned stare suggested she was
perfectly content to let me drown myself out of spite.
I forced the liquid down, and the hand pinching my nose closed fell
away, allowing a burst of air to pump into my lungs and cool the fiery grip
of panic.
“Good,” the woman said, nodding.
She slowly peeled her palm from my lips, allowing me to suck in more
air through my clenched teeth, but a quick dart of her eyes to someone I
couldn’t see had a muscled arm locking tightly around my jaw.
She lifted a mug to my lips. “Again,” she commanded.
Liquid sloshed messily across my face. Fluid filled my nostrils, and the
panicked sensation of drowning roared back to the surface.
“You’ll be fine,” she said calmly. “Drink up.”
With little choice otherwise, I reluctantly swallowed another mouthful,
then another.
My thoughts hitched on the taste coating my mouth. There was
something vaguely familiar about it—harsh, almost metallic, but with a
tangy bite of citrus smothered under the chalky taste of smoke and ash.
Dread seeped into my bones. I knew that flavor—I’d started every day
with a cup of it for nearly ten years.
Flameroot.
“How much of this mixture are we supposed to make them drink?” the
woman called over her shoulder.
“I put in three spoonfuls per cup,” a voice answered. “Auralie’s
instructions only called for one, but with this girl being a Crown, I thought
she might need a stronger dose.”
My mother’s name tore through me and hauled me back to the memory
of my last moment of consciousness.
For More Read Download This Book
EPUB