She would be beautiful, but there were many types of beauty. She tried to distract herself by planning who she would be that day.Ī thousand possibilities floated before her. Afraid to close her eyes, she stared up at the canopy and practiced her slow breathing until her heartbeat steadied. With a trembling breath, she scooted to the other side of the mattress, away from the sweat-stained sheets, and lay back down. She rubbed her hands repeatedly over her arms and sides until she was certain the fire wasn’t real. The same nightmare that had plagued her for too many years, that she could never seem to escape. She sat in the faint morning light shuddering, trying to will away the nightmare. She struggled to swallow, but her saliva tasted like smoke and made her cringe.

Her sheets were damp and cold from her sweat, but her skin was still burning hot from the dream. Levana gasped and jolted upward, limbs tangled in heavy blankets. Through the haze she caught a glimpse of kind eyes. She reached out with her good hand, trying to drag her body from the fire, but the bed of coals crushed and collapsed under her weight, burying her, dragging her deeper into the embers and the smoke. She pleaded for death, but it never came. The pain was relentless, the agony never ending. Blisters burbled across her skin, and entire swaths of flesh peeled away, revealing raw tissue underneath. The smell of her own burning flesh invaded her nostrils. White sparks floated in her vision but the mercy of unconsciousness wouldn’t come. She was lying on a burning pyre, hot coals beneath her back.

Levana fairest