Candice's eyes fluttered open, and for several seconds she simply stared upward without understanding where she was. Beautiful chandeliers hung from a magnificent vaulted ceiling, their soft golden light spreading across intricate patterns carved into the pale stone above her.
She blinked several times, trying to force her vision to focus, and then instinctively moved her hand toward her chest. Her fingers pressed against the fabric covering her body, but there was no stabbing pain, no soreness and no lingering sensation from the injury she remembered. Her breathing caught as she slowly ran her hand over herself again, almost expecting the pain to return but nothing happened.
