Cries and shouts filled the camp. Ren turned his head towards the sounds, body swaying slightly. It was difficult to focus his vision, but by the light of the fire, Ren could see a figure collapsed on the ground. It was Sifa. Her eyes rolled back in her head.

Ren felt hands grip his shoulders tight. Someone shouted close by and then the world tipped and everything turned black.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Voices.

Rough blankets against his skin.

The touch of a hand against his brow felt like burning metal. Ren groaned and turned his head away. Even that seemed like an effort, an immense demand of energy.

His body was on fire, but he was trembling with cold. Someone spoke to him, said his name. Anik. Niklas. A stranger. He couldn't say anything in reply, his mind floating somewhere above his body. He breathed out splinters of wood and metal that rasped his throat raw when he tried to speak. The earth shook with tremors that lasted far too long to be an earthquake, until he realised it wasn't the ground but his body that was shaking. Minutes passed like days, and all Ren could focus on was how much he wanted it to stop.

The first time he opened his eyes, he was alone. He wanted to scream, to cry out. He was on a cot, covered in blankets, shielded from the outside world by the canvas flaps of a makeshift tent. His stomach roiled when he tried to move and he fought to swallow it down. He squeezed his eyes shut.

The second time he opened his eyes, Niklas was there. He held Ren's hand in a too-firm grip, his head bowed and his shoulders shaking. Ren tried to speak, to tell him not to cry, and judging by Niklas' startled reaction, he had at least succeeded in making a sound.

“You're awake! Fuck, I was so scared you were going to die. How are you feeling?” Niklas asked, wiping at his eyes with the back of a hand.

Groaning, Ren furrowed his brows and closed his eyes. Niklas was speaking much too quickly, his voice too loud. It felt like Ren's body and mind were wrapped in a blanket of stinging thorns.

“What happened?” Ren asked, voice rasping and rough.

“You've been poisoned,” Niklas answered, the dread in his voice the last thing Ren heard before he slipped back into the darkness.

His mind was ravaged by fever dreams, shapes and shadows dancing over his floating body; dark, angry creatures. They screamed at him, screamed so loudly he thought his ears might start to bleed.