a "Look" meme, just for fun

as i was perusing blogs this morning, i came across this post from Annalisa Crawford's blog. in this meme, you have to find the first incident of the word "look" in your WIP and post the surrounding paragraph. the closest i could get was "looked" and it's from the prologue of Black Heart (my seemingly never-ending WIP sequel to Eldala). and i've included more than a paragraph.

if you want to read the entire prologue, which i think i wrote a couple of years ago, you can read it on my Eldala blog.

Hamal took a few ragged breaths of his own and tried to still his mind. If this was the end, he had to warn her. She was one of the last.

He tried to make me restore it. I refused. Now he is going to kill me as well.

There was no answer, but he knew she had heard him. She was the most powerful seer among them. Surely she would be able to evade the threat.

He darted to the next tree and slammed into something hard. The impact knocked him onto his back. Though it was pitch black, he looked up. A momentary flash of violet came from the man’s eyes.

Hamal remembered the cold malice in them.

“Last chance.” The voice was human and yet not.

“I serve the Baraca.” His heart beat frantically in his chest, but his voice was steady and strong. “I will never help you.”

“A shame,” the man said as he pressed a cold dagger to Hamal’s throat.