CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
MIRRORS AND BLACK.
The darkness all around.
Water wrapped around Nyssa's feet.
She screamed, but no noise left her lips.
Her reflection shuddered back to her with every turn. Until she fell to her knees and closed her hands over her ears. Tears streaming down her face.
She was alone.
Scared.
Trapped.
A never-ending void of nothingness on all sides.
She dared to look up. Her reflection stared back. Every face she'd ever worn— the Princess back at Magnice with her specialty dresses, holding that tiara in her hands. The starved eight-year-old, her mother standing behind her. The screaming girl she'd been the day of her sister's death. The hopeless one on her way to the Umber. The learning, happy girl in Nadir's arms. The determined one standing in Man's camp.
The broken one lying on the floor.
And the creature she'd become.
All of them a culmination of the person she wanted to be. The one who she could be so proud of. The one her sister had believed she could be.
Drae.
Her heart fell, and she slumped back into a ball.
You will never be alone, someone said.
—Sunlight warmed her skin. Lavender and black herb filled her nose. The wind brushed her cheeks. She was sitting in a meadow of flowers. Nyssa looked around her in confusion as her hands swept over the delicate grasses.
The noise of laughter caught her attention, and an involuntary sob choked in her throat at what she saw.
Aydra was running with Draven on her heels. She was laughing. Laughing a laugh Nyssa had never heard. A laugh of happiness and freedom that had never been allowed to her in those castle walls.
Draven grabbed her and swung her around, finally allowing her feet back on the ground after a couple of turns. They wavered a moment, and he kissed her throat, his arms tightening around her chest. Aydra settled into it a moment before playfully shoving him off. Draven laughed, his head swung back, the laugh Nyssa had only ever seen him have when he felt most at home. But he grabbed her hand again and pulled her back to him. The kiss he pressed to her lips was one of hunger and happiness. Their foreheads met, and Aydra pulled away from him again.
As she shook her head at whatever he'd said, Nyssa stood. The wind curled around her face, billowing her hair back as she watched them. And for a moment, she couldn't move.
Until Aydra saw her.
Her sister froze. She could see the slow drop of Aydra's smile from her lips, the softening of her eyes.
Nyssa nearly started sobbing. She forced the heave of her lungs down deep.
Draven saw her then, and Nyssa had to remind herself to breathe.
Your King and Queen are safe.
Aydra took two steps towards her, but Draven held her hand back. Nyssa began to shake. Aydra moved once more, and it took everything in Nyssa to do what she did.
She forced her legs backward and shook her head.
Because she knew if she so much as moved a single step closer to her sister, she would stay there with her.
