Book 19: You Must Submit

Ian

I know exactly who I am. 

That’s my problem as I stand in the center of a wide, earthen, circular room somewhere deep underground. 

An elderly woman rises on her toes to inspect the moon-shaped scars on my wrist. Her touch is gentle but prodding, especially on the older scars. My entire body is thrumming, however, with a new kind of knowledge that threatens to bring me to the floor, and there isn’t a chair or a stool in sight. 

She looks up into my eyes. “She’s fine. Resting. She stayed out there with you all night.”

“No one should have allowed her near me.”

“We tried.” She rewraps a loose bandage around the scars. “Do you know where you are?”

I don’t bother shaking my head. I’m exhausted. I feel like