CHAPTER 22
ARIANA POV
The world didn't come back all at once. It leaked in through the ringing in my ears—a high-pitched, steady whine that made my teeth ache.
I stayed pressed against the grit of the asphalt, my fingers clawing into the dirt as if the earth itself might try to throw me off.
The smell was the first thing to hit me: acrid, chemical, and the heavy, sickening scent of roasted rubber and gasoline.
I forced my eyes open. Everything was a blur of dancing orange embers and thick, oily black smoke that blotted out the morning sun. I tried to draw a breath, but the air was a scorching cocktail of soot that triggered a violent, racking cough.
"Damian..." My voice was gone, reduced to a dry, pathetic rasp that wouldn't have carried an inch.
I rolled onto my side, every joint in my body screaming in a dissonant choir of agony. My suit was a ruin of ash and singed fabric. I pushed myself up, my palms stinging from the heat radiating off the nearby inferno.
