"HUUUUUUK!"
It wasn't a gasp for air. It was the sound of a drowning victim violently breaking the surface of the water. Valerie threw herself sideways off the altar, hitting the stone floor on her hands and knees.
She violently coughed, vomiting a horrific mixture of dark blood, bile, and bright blue, pixelated static onto the tiles. Her entire body shook like a leaf in a hurricane.
"She's alive!" Corbin wailed, dropping his head to the floor and crying in pure, unadulterated relief.
Wraith dropped down beside her, his hands hovering nervously, unsure if touching her would trigger another massive magical shockwave. "Boss? Valerie, look at me."
Valerie didn't look at him. She stared at the puddle of blood on the floor, her chest heaving with desperate, ragged breaths. Every single muscle in her body felt like it had been run through an industrial meat grinder and then set on fire. Her head pounded with a migraine so severe it made her vision blur into double images.
