#Chapter 78: Party Drug

Aria My body felt like it was floating through a void. I didn’t have any dreams—no prophecies, no dead parents coming to give me cryptic messages, none of that. Everything was just… dark. And then I woke up. Sort of. The first thing I noticed as I slowly returned to consciousness was the sound of sniffling and little hiccups, followed by the warm pressure of tiny hands gripping mine. I tried to open my eyes, but my eyelids felt glued shut, and my head was pounding with a dull, unrelenting throb. Everything about me felt sluggish and wrong, as if my body was working against itself. Did I get… hit over the head with something? I wondered groggily. Because it certainly felt like I had gotten steamrolled by a freight train in the middle of the night. “Is Mommy gonna be okay?” I recognized the trembling little voice immediately: Lucas. My heart twisted, even through the haze that was clouding my mind. I forced my aching eyes to fl