"Irene? Are you awake?"
Irene opened her eyes but everything was a blur and it took her awhile before she could see Hazel looming over her with a concerned expression.
"Haz...el." Her voice cracked as if she hadn't spoken for days. "How long was I gone?"
"Two days." Hazel spoke. "You got me worried. What happened?"
Irene recalled sneaking into her son's room at night to take his pain away. She had practiced the spell for days and even though he had told her he didn't want to, she couldn't let him stay in pain. But as she took some of his pain away, she realized she couldn't even handle half of it. It was too much and knowing that her son was in so much pain, pained her even more. She wanted to take all of it away, so she pushed herself over the limit and ended up in this condition.
One thing she would never forget was seeing Lucian in that dark well, getting burned over and over again. She would make sure Pierre went through the same and even worse.