Page 26 of Her Warrior Fae

The light around me started to fade, as if the sun sank. A cold breeze picked up and brushed against my skin, making me shiver. It tugged at my hair.

“What’s happening?” I demanded.

Fear curled at the pit of my stomach.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m saving you,” Terra said. Her voice was further and further away.

“Don’t leave me!” I shouted. “I still don’t have any answers.”

“Nylah.” I heard her voice as if she was far, far away now.

“Where are you?”

The light continued to seep way until there was nothing left. I wasn’t in darkness—the darkness in this world was a living, breathing thing. No, in the absence of light, there was simply…nothing.

I jerked back into the normal realm and looked around. Everything was still as it should be, except it was different. My head ached, and I was dizzy. I swayed on my feet and pushed the heel of my hand against my forehead. I lost my balance, reached for the edge of a table to catch myself, and missed.

When I fell, I didn’t hit the floor. The world turned black, and I kept falling.

“Nylah?” a voice called, finding me in a swirl of nothingness.

I tried to find the voice. I swam toward it. I needed something to anchor myself.

“Nylah, wake up! Goddess, I don’t know what to do…you’re the one I usually call when I need someone to help me! Nylah,please.”

I blinked my eyes open. The world came into view, blurred at first and then slowly slipping into place.

I blinked again, staring at the concerned face that was bent over me. Wild red hair and blue eyes met me, set in a pale skin. She wore a formal dress, and she looked important.

“Nylah! Oh, thank the Goddess you’re okay. What happened?”

I looked around. I lay on the stone floor in what seemed to be a library.

“Nylah?”

I frowned and rubbed my temple. “My head hurts.” My tongue was thick in my mouth, my voice sounding like that of a stranger when I spoke.

“What happened?” the woman asked.

I shook my head slowly and tried to get up.

“Here, let me help you.”

When she touched me, I jerked away.

“Nylah…what’s wrong?”

I had the strange sensation that I was still floating, that reality was just beyond my grasp.

“Don’t touch me,” I muttered. “I don’t know who you are.”

The woman gasped. “What?”

She reached for me again, but I scrambled back.

“Oh no,” she breathed. “You really don’t know who I am?”

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