Dark Weaver (Weaver Series) by Dena Nicotra

accent, proper and condescending all combined.  I swallowed hard, my throat was burning and my tongue felt like sandpaper.
    “Then what are you, and where are we?”  I asked, realizing my arms were strapped down.  There was a tray in front of me , which contained several strange looking objects and the more I looked around the harder my heart began to pound in my chest.  She wasn’t answering my questions.  She was busy clicking buttons on a large monitor and then she poured blue liquid from a glass bottle into a strange looking tube.  I followed the liquid as it swirled around, down, down, and into my arm.  “No…..please,”  my voice was so weak I wasn’t sure if she even heard me but my eyes were suddenly too heavy and I stopped caring. 
    I was back at my bayou, feet in the water and it was so cool.  Kalan was in the distance walking toward me.  The sun was just going down casting a beautiful backlight on him which made him look more like an angel than a man.  I smiled and waited for him to reach me, but he never did.  Everything shifted and I was in a boat with my papaw on the bayou.  He was explaining how ill my mamaw was and then I was walking with him in the cotton field.  I felt every emotion he felt in a rush before I was drifting again.  This time fixing my family’s finances, then I was kissing my horse on the nose.  Images began to whoosh by faster than my mind could recognize them followed by blackness.  Voices zoomed in and out — sometimes too slow, sometimes too fast.  A rush of white light brought me to an image of a little girl running in front of me at the airport, hot coffee on my legs, a swimming pool…Lela chanting in some foreign language.  Images shifted to Kalan, followed by Kess saying “ Concentrate Joey.  When you don’t want me to read you, you need to block with separate thought threads. ” Images shifted to the car accident.  My eyes flew open at the sound of someone screaming and then I realized it was my own voice.  Chloe was moving images around on the large monitors suspended like holograms in front of her and then she turned in her rolling chair to face me.   “Well, you were a busy little weaver weren’t you?”  Sweat had drenched the front of my t-shirt and my hair was matted to my forehead.  My head was pounding so hard and my vision was doubling everything in the room. 
    “I did…what…I thought was right, ” I managed in a whisper.
    “The only thing you did right was restore Prince Kalan.”  She turned to push more buttons and I was drowning in memories again.  I felt my body convulsing as another stream of images appeared.  Lela in the cave, Pepper’s face with blood coming from her nose and ears. This shifted to the beach and a little boy pointing at the ice-cream sign, then blackness and my screaming again.  I opened my eyes and jerked my arms in the straps. 
    “ Please stop!”  I shouted, but Chloe acted like she didn’t hear me at all.  “Segments are missing,” she said, but not to me.  I realized that Torvin was standing behind her looking at the monitor and shaking his head. 
    “Keep trying, we need everything ,”  he said with a grunt.  Chloe said something I couldn’t hear, and then they both stepped out of the room.  I tried again to free my arms, but it was no use.  Those straps weren’t budging.  I wasn’t sure how much longer I could stand this.  My breathing was erratic and my heartbeat wasn’t much better.  I remembered Digger saying it would hurt, but it wouldn’t kill me.  I prayed he was telling the truth just before I passed out.
    I awoke to the sound of a spoon tinkling in a cup.  The room was dimly lit, but I could make out a shape behind a curtain.
    “Hello?”  I croaked.  The curtain slid back and a tall woman with short, curly hair approached my bed holding a china cup.  “Drink this,” she said.  I rolled my head away from her.  I’d be damned if I was going to take any