*Xander*
I opened my eyes to the feeling of someone wrapping their hands around my throat. Slate was hovering over me, blood drenching his hair and face as his eyes widened with surprise.
I shoved him off, and he screamed, and screamed, and…
“Oh, shit!” I cried, the words hitching in my throat as I dug my heels into the ground and sat up. Slate's screams had faded into nothing but a distant echo. Before me was a gorge, and I was sitting right on the edge of a cliff.
I struggled to catch my breath as I rose to my knees and gingerly looked over the edge of the cliff, my eyes widening at the sheer gravity of the depth of the gorge below. Slate was nowhere to be seen.
“Well, that takes care of that,” I mumbled under my breath as I scooted away from the cliff’s edge and ran my fingers through my hair, ruffling the filthy, black strands that had grown far too long for my liking.
But then I snapped back to reality.
