Page 159 of The Games Gods Play
In an instant, the ferryman is standing in the room with us. He takes in the scene in a single, quick look.
“Asclepius can’t come.” Hades presses the cloth to my wound, and I cry out at the lancing pain. “Get her every godsdamned doctor down here if you have to,” he orders.
Charon doesn’t ask questions. He just goes.
And that’s the last thing I see before oblivion drags me under.
78
Which Way Is Up?
I know it’s coming. I know, and I can’t stop it.
Because ever since I blacked out, I’ve been trapped in a nightmare, reliving the same moment over and over, and even though some part of me knows this is just a dream, it feels real. Every time.
I move my head to see a flash of something silver that lashes out from inside the tower. A blur, it’s so fast. All I know is Boone grunts, and then he’s in the air.
His face contorts with shock as he wheels his arms, and I reach out a futile hand for him, grasping nothing as he falls away.
“No!” I think I scream it as I watch him drop.
Hands at my shoulders shake me. “Lyra!”
But I don’t wake up. I’m still caught in the nightmare.
“No!” I scream as I watch him drop.
It feels like time has slowed and the fall takes a lifetime.
Boone’s horrified eyes never leave my face, even when he hits the spikes.
“Lyra!” Another rough shake yanks me out of the nightmare, and I’m back in the here and now. My own harsh breathing rasps in and out, with sharp pants as the horror of that moment ebbs.
“Boone,” I whimper.
“Lyra?” Hades’ voice is coming from a long way away.
I frown. I know I’m awake now. Where am I? In my room, asleep?
No, not there.
But my eyes won’t open, like sandbags are holding them down.
“You’re going to feel a prick,” his voice tells me through the darkness and confusion and fuzzy sort of awareness I’m trying to navigate.
There’s a tiny sting in my arm, followed by a wave of pain, as if that prick reminded all the other nerves in my body to wake up, too. My side aches dully but horribly, and the rest of my body… “Ouch.”
“Are you in pain?” Hades asks me, I think. Then, “Why is she in pain?” demanded in a very different voice, hopefully to someone else.
“Mmm…hot.” Why am I so hot? I’m sweating so much, my body feels sticky, and my hair is soaked.
A cool cloth presses against my face. “I know,” Hades says. “You have an infection, and it’s causing a fever.”
Infection? From what?
I must ask that, because Hades answers. “The thing that pushed Boone off that wall must’ve gone past you to do it.”
The thing that…
