Chapter 32 · Gates of Hell

"Stop breathing, you idiot. You're literally sucking in poison."

Sela's voice sliced through the haze, sharp and commanding. She didn't just say it; she slammed her palm against my chest, pinning me back against a jagged slab of concrete. The force of it knocked the wind out of me, but it was better than the alternative.

I gasped, and the toxic fog—a thick, sickly yellowish soup—slid down my throat like liquid lead. I coughed, a wet, hacking sound that tasted of copper and old graves.

"I can't... stop..." I managed to wheeze, my voice sounding like it had been dragged through gravel.

"Then hold your breath until your lungs burst," Sela snapped. She was too close. I could feel the heat radiating off her, the scent of ozone and expensive leather clashing with the sulfur of the Forbidden Zone. Her eyes were narrowed, scanning the swirling mist around us. "If you pass out here, I'm not carrying you. I'll leave you for the scavengers."

I tried to push her off, but my arms felt like wet noodles. The Devouring Bone inside me was screaming. Not in pain, but in a raw, starving hunger that made my teeth ache.