Free Morning Rising by Samantha Boyette Page A

longer feel it. Black
tendrils ran up her arm, wrapping around it in curling swoops and
heading for her shoulder. The black continued up her shoulder and
onto her face. When half her face was coal black, and her vision
went dark, the memories started. They came so quickly she barely
registered them. The only thing she noticed was the pain.
    Kara’s head throbbed as the memories took
root in her brain, falling back into their rightful places. She
gripped her head with both hands and fell to her knees moaning,
unaware of anything in the outside world. As the pain inside her
head threatened to consume her, Kara dropped her hands and head to
the ground. She was oblivious to gravel digging into the back of
her shaking hands. It was the most intense pain she had ever
experienced, seeping deep into her bones before twisting to be let
out.
    Kara let her hands drop from her head as the
last memory fell into place. She stayed on her hands and knees,
taking deep, shaky breaths. If she tried to stand, she was sure she
would collapse.
    Slowly, the blackness began to seep out. It
withdrew from her head, leaving her panting as her breathing evened
out and the pain faded away. She sat on her knees, watching as the
tendrils ran back down her arm, following the same path they had
moved up. They stopped at her wrist, all the blackness pooling
there. It wrapped again and again around her wrist until she felt a
flash of white hot pain that made her gasp, and then nothing.
    Kara sat staring at her wrist. There, where
the blackness lay only moments before, was a strange design, one
line, three dots in a row, two lines, and one large dot with a
smaller one underneath. She looked up at Baron. He watched her with
a pained expression. Her own pain had subsided as quickly as it had
started.
    “What does it mean?” Kara asked, her voice
was barely more than a whisper as she looked at the design.
    “Truth, in the old language,” Baron answered.
“I’m sorry it caused you pain.”
    “I’m okay,” Kara said. She pushed herself to
her feet only to stumble and be caught by Baron’s waiting arms. She
felt light headed and weak, like she had just been sick for a
week.
    “You need to eat something,” he ordered. He
put an arm around her waist, and pulled her arm up to his
shoulders. Supporting her, Baron began to move toward the
stairs.
    “Okay.” Kara nodded, head swimming. “But I
just ate.”
    Baron chuckled low in his throat.
    “That’s okay, the stone takes a lot out of
you,” Baron said. “When we find. . . Dylan-” Baron seemed to have
trouble with the name, “-it’s going to be harder for her. You’ll
have to help her carry the burden of the memories.”
    “Why harder,” Kara breathed as they wound
down the stairs. This time she hardly considered the metal around
her, but the echoing of their steps was bringing her headache back
to her threefold.
    “You gave your memories willingly the first
time and the second time they were only pushed back. By law,
Demitar couldn’t truly take them from you. “But Dylan is his by
law. He ripped Dylan’s memories from her. Putting them back will be
like shoving salt in fresh wounds,” Baron said, his voice grim.
    “Sounds nice,” Kara said sarcastically. After
the pain she had just felt, she didn’t want to think of it being
any worse for Dylan. Her pain had almost been too much.
    They made their way back towards the
apartment silently, Baron lost in his own thoughts and Kara trying
to stay on her feet. Helping Dylan get her memories back would be
painful. Kara had never been able to handle the sight of Dylan in
pain, but if it was best for Dylan, Kara would do it.
     
     
     

Chapter 6
     
     
    “She took it all?”
    Kara stirred on the couch, woken by the sound
of Alster’s voice. He was angry again. Kara kept her eyes shut, not
ready to face the world yet. When Baron sat her on the couch after
the awakening, she had realized she couldn’t keep her eyes open.
She didn’t know how