Violet Eden Chapters 04 - Endless

sure, more sure than I had been of anything in my entire life, that something truly terrifying awaited me. But there was nothing I could do.



CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
    ‘What! Could you not then understand? This is the hell with which you were threatened.’
    The Holy Quran 36:62–63
    C onflictingsmells hit me first. Something damp, pungent – like disinfectant. Then, salty sweat and heat. But above all, the tangy smell of fresh blood mingled with the rotten odour of dried.
    The pain came next. From my forehead to the back of my neck, my shoulders, arms and down from there. Everywhere. It felt like my body was on fire.
    I laboured to breathe. My throat was raw, every inhalation felt like knives to an open wound. On some level it registered that it was because of all the screaming, but the thought was too difficult to hold on to.
    ‘She’s coming round,’ a voice said.
    Footsteps sounded, moving nearer. ‘Hey, Dapper just called. They’re almost back.’ Different voice.
    Who? Was that … Spence?
    ‘Good. Go back outside and stand guard.’
    A pause. Then footsteps fading away.
    ‘Get her some water,’ said the same voice.
    ‘I’mnot leaving her,’ a female, replied.
    ‘She can barely breathe, get her some water,’ the first voice growled in response.
    ‘I don’t trust you with her.’
    ‘I brought her here, didn’t I?’
    Another pause. Scuffled footsteps followed.
    Someone yelled out from further away. More sounds then a loud bang followed by a click.
    My mind wasn’t working properly. I tried to open my eyes. Panic started to slowly rise as I questioned where I was and what had happened. Was I somewhere I’d been before? I started to see glimpses of light. Something flashing through the air towards me.
    Arrow.
    A hand smoothed my forehead with a damp cloth. It didn’t help the pain. There was a loud banging nearby.
    ‘Violet?’ the voice said. ‘You need to try and wake up.’
    I couldn’t understand why. Nothing made sense. I saw more flashes.
    Memories started coming back to me. My body jolted. Strong hands held me down. I remembered Lilith. I remembered the children – Simon, Katie, Tom. I remembered the arrows.
    So. Many. Arrows.
    I tried to speak but no words came out.
    ‘Don’t try to talk,’ said the voice. ‘You need to concentrate on waking up. When you wake up properly you can heal yourself.’
    But why?
    I was supposed to be dead. I’d felt myself slip away.
    Aflicker of irony ran through me. I thought when I died all the pain would go away.
    Just my freaking luck it hasn’t worked that way.
    But who would talk to me if I was dead? And why did he sound so familiar?
    God?
    If so, then surely I wouldn’t get a house call; I’d never even believed in him.
    ‘Violet, I don’t want to have to slap you. Open your damn eyes!’
    Definitely not God.
    My eyes fluttered. The lighting was dim and my face felt badly swollen. Slowly, the person standing over me came into view.
    There was more banging, louder this time. I couldn’t work out if it was coming from my mind.
    ‘Phoenix?’ I croaked.
    ‘Concentrate,’ he said. ‘This is very important. Can you understand me?’
    I tried to nod. I was alive.
    ‘Good. Good,’ he soothed, as if encouraging us both. ‘Violet, you need to heal yourself. Dapper’s power isn’t going to cut it and I can’t help you until you’re strong. Jesus,’ he sighed. ‘We have to do this now or I never will. Do you hear?’
    ‘Children?’ I whispered, concentrating on simply breathing through the extraordinary pain. Coming to terms with dying was one thing, coming to terms with surviving in the face of so much awfulness, knowing if I recovered I’d have to relive over and over all that had happened was … earth-shattering.
    Phoenix’s expressionsoftened.
    ‘You saved seventy-one.’ His voice held a strange kind of bewilderment. ‘Dapper and Onyx are making sure they get back to the Academy safely. I … I don’t know how you did it, but you stayed conscious through it all. I monitored your heartbeat the entire time, waiting for you to pass out, but you just kept going. When you finally closed your eyes, Lilith was sure you were dead, but I healed your wounds and Lincoln sent you the last of his strength. It was enough to keep you alive. She forced me to shoot you with another few arrows, but you didn’t stop breathing and she refused to let you have an unconscious death. She saw it as a waste. So she sent you away until you could