Inside the bedchamber, Lumina twisted beneath heavy silk sheets, her slender body curling tight then stretching out in restless, desperate arcs, as though she could outrun the cage of her own skin.
Sleep had forsaken her long ago, what remained was a low, constant fever that burned beneath her ribs and refused to be quenched.
Then the pain struck sharp, merciless, like a blade twisting deep inside her chest. She cried out, a broken scream that tore from her throat and echoed off the stone walls.
"Mum… Mum!"
The word dissolved into wrenching sobs, her voice small and childlike in the swallowing dark. Thunder crashed overhead, shaking the tall windows, and she bolted upright, drenched in cold sweat, tears streaming so thick they blurred the world into smears of shadow and moonlight.
She gasped for air, chest heaving violently, the storm outside mirroring the one raging within her wild, relentless, tearing at every fragile seam of her composure.
