Chapter 109

SIENNA

Darkness didn’t greet me gently, it dragged me from unconsciousness like I owed it a debt.

I gasped.

It was involuntary. My lungs seized as if they’d forgotten what air tasted like. My throat—God—my throat was a desert of splinters. Every breath scraped through me like razor blades dipped in ash. My tongue clung to the roof of my mouth, dry and cracked like sun-scorched clay.

The air sm