Chapter 52

CLAUDIA. A scream escapes my lips, loud and clear inside the small confined room. Every man in the room turns to me with shocked expressions, but the image of their faces is starting to blend with the walls and the paintings around us. I look at Achilles and I’m not even sure I’m seeing him correctly anymore. The only thing that seems to be burned into my vision is the eyes of that creature, bright and piercing, pushing through the dark light torches of fire. Reading something in my mind. Knowing all the things that I’m thinking…. The scream goes on and on. For how long, I don’t know. Everything around me is just melting into one big blur of color, and no single feature is visible. It’s all gone, and it’s just me alone now, spinning in this big vacuum of nothingness. I can’t think. I don’t think I can even breathe. I feel hands on me. I feel something soft on my back. It’s all just a mix of vague sounds and sensations now. I try to steady the beat of my heart, blinking hard to get