Chapter 274

Kieran’s POV

My eyes open slowly, heavy, my vision blurred at the edges like I’ve been pulled out of something I wasn’t ready to leave. The ceiling above me is unfamiliar for a second, just plain wooden beams, faint cracks running across it. It takes a moment before I recognize where I am. The infirmary.

The air here smells of different mixtures of herbs, medicines and concoctions. Then it dawned on me that I am alive.

Alive. I’m alive.

My chest rises as I take a deeper breath, and pain follows immediately spreading through my ribs, my muscles, my bones. Everything feels… used. Drained. Like I’ve been hollowed out and barely put back together.

I try to move and I regret my actions immediately because a sharp weakness crashes through me, my arm barely lifting before it drops back to t