Chapter 324: Burned out

Third-person POV

Electra’s eyes were locked on the orb darting through the air ahead of her. She adjusted her stance, bowstring drawn tight, ready to let the arrow fly, but just when she was about to let go of the arrow, something hit her.

A sharp and bone-crushing pain exploded in her chest, stealing the breath from her lungs. It was so sudden and so strong that her fingers lost all strength. The bow slipped from her grasp, dropping to the hard ground, and the arrow she had been holding rolled away, forgotten, as her knees buckled right under her.

She fell.

The impact jolted her body, but it was nothing compared to the burning ache that was spreading through her chest. Her vision blurred, her head swam, and then the ringing began, a high, loud, and unrelenting ringing. It was like someone had shoved blades into her ears.

Somewhere through the haze, she knew people had noticed. The shouting and footsteps confirmed it, and as for the match and the tournament, none of that mattered now. All eyes were on her.

“Electra!”

“Electra, what’s wrong?”

She heard the voices, familiar ones, but they felt distant, almost muffled under the ringing in her ears. Irina’s voice came first, panicked and loud, then Penelope’s, low and urgent, and Roxana’s tone followed, also quick and worried.

Hands touched her shoulders, and she could tell that they were all trying to steady her, but she couldn’t answer them. The words just wouldn’t come, and she could barely hold on to a single thought.

Her chest tightened again, like fire had been poured straight into her heart, and the pain raced through her veins, filling every corner of her body.

She tried to reach inward, toward the connection she always felt.

’E…’

Her thought was shaky, her mental voice almost breaking.

’E, what’s happening?’

At first, there was nothing. There was no response and no presence. There was only silence, and that terrified her more than the pain.

’E!’ she called again, this time with desperation, even as another wave of heat ripped right through her. Her body jerked involuntarily, and she clutched her chest, gasping for air.

The ringing was louder now, a cruel shriek in her ears, and every other sound from the outside world faded right under it. She couldn’t even hear her own breathing, and then, finally—

’Electra…’

The voice was strained, weaker than she had ever heard it.

’Something’s happened… to our vessel.’

The words barely registered through the storm in her head.

’Our bond with her… it’s breaking.’

The meaning hit her all at once, and her stomach dropped.

Seraphina.

Something had happened to Seraphina.

Her mind raced even as her body failed her, and she immediately knew that it wasn’t just something random; it was something bad. Something serious enough to tear at the very thread that bound them together.

Electra forced her arms to move, pushing against the ground, and trying to get up. She kept telling herself that she had to go, she had to find her, but as soon as she tried to move herself, the heat in her body surged again, throwing her back down.

The world tilted, and she was only vaguely aware of Irina kneeling at her side, Roxana’s hands gripping her arm, and Penelope shouting something at the people crowding around.

Her vision swam in and out of focus, shapes moved above her, faces she knew, and others she didn’t. There were too many of them, and they were all too close and too loud.

She wanted them gone. She needed space. She needed to breathe, and most importantly, she needed to find Seraphina before it was too late, but she couldn’t even lift her hand to push them away.

Her body was too hot, far too hot, and she could feel the heat radiating off herself, like she was standing in the heart of a bonfire, and from the way people around her flinched, pulling back when they tried to touch her, she knew they could feel it too.

“She’s burning up,” someone said. “I can’t even hold her…”

“Get her some water!” another voice called.

“Move back, all of you!” Penelope’s loud voice cut through the noise, but it was distant, muffled by the ever-present ringing.

Electra squeezed her eyes shut, forcing herself to focus on the one thing that mattered.

’E, tell me where she is. Tell me what happened.’

But E didn’t answer this time. The heat got even worse, swallowing every thought and every ounce of strength she had left. It felt like her very soul was being pulled apart, piece by piece.

She tried to hold on to the bond, to grasp whatever was left of it, but it was slipping and thinning like smoke between her fingers.

Somewhere in the distance, she heard Roxana’s voice, and it was filled with panic. “We need to get her out of here! She can’t stay in the middle of the field like this! Something’s happening to her.”

She could hear her friends’ voices clashing, and they were clearly yelling at something, but Electra could barely hear them.

All she could hear was her own heartbeat, fast and erratic, and the terrible emptiness where Seraphina’s presence was supposed to be.

Her breath came in shallow gasps, and the air around her felt heavier by the second. She could feel sweat sliding down her temples, dampening her hair, but the heat didn’t lessen, and then the pain in her head sharpened again, forcing her to bite back another scream.

She failed.

The scream tore out of her throat, raw and unrestrained, a sound so guttural and inhuman it startled even herself. She could feel the sound vibrating through her ribs and hear the crowd’s reaction shift from confusion to alarm.

Hands hovered over her but didn’t touch. No one dared. Her friends were shouting, but the words were lost in the chaos inside her head.

She didn’t know how much longer she could take this.

’Hold on,’ she told herself. ’You have to hold on for her.’

But even as she thought it, she could feel her strength slipping. Her body trembled violently, the heat making every muscle ache. Her skin felt too tight, stretched over the burning inside her.

Another wave of agony ripped through her chest, even much worse than the last, and she knew, she just knew that something was happening to Seraphina right at that very moment, and if the bond broke completely, there would be no saving either of them.

The fire in her blood flared again, blinding her. She gasped, clutching at the ground, her nails scraping against the dirt.

Somewhere far away, E’s voice flickered faintly in her mind.

’It’s… fading… Electra…’

She didn’t know if the voice was real or if she was imagining it, but it was enough to make her push once more against the burning weight holding her down.

Her arms shook. Her legs refused to obey, and she managed only an inch before her strength gave out. She was screaming now… screaming at the top of her lungs.

The ringing in her ears seemed to swell, filling her head until it drowned out everything else, and then, slowly, her vision began to dim. Everything around her was getting even more blurry.

The last thing she saw before the darkness started to close in was Irina’s face hovering over hers, eyes wide with fear, and the faint outline of Penelope shoving people back to give her space.

She didn’t hear what they said. She didn’t feel the hands that hovered helplessly above her.

All she felt was the burn from the heat and the terrifying emptiness where Seraphina used to be.

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