“Where—”
The girl was gone.
She ogled at the space where she’d just been, realizing it had only been her imagination. Her fear seeping into her consciousness. A deep exhale left her, her eyes shutting again, and she fell back to her knees.
“Fucking curses, you’re going crazy,” she mumbled, pushing her wet hands into her hair.
“Here I thought you already were.”
Her head twisted at the noise of Nadir’s voice. She had to grasp to her chest to keep her composure. “Hi,” she managed.
Nadir finished closing the space to her. “Hi?” he repeated. “Fuck of a greeting there, Princess. It’s the middle of the night,” he said as he sat.
He held something out for her—a shirt, she realized. She took it and pushed it over her head, eyes closing at the soft linen against her dry skin, the smell of salt and dirt from where he’d been harvesting fruits the day before.
“Who were you looking for?” he asked.
“I—” She didn’t want to admit what she’d seen, even if she knew he would understand or even know why she had seen it. But she knew that if anyone would know what it was, it was him.
“I saw a little girl,” she finally admitted.
“Was it you?”
“Her hair was wrong. And her eyes… they looked of molten steel… they were Aydra’s eyes.”
She could see the workings in his mind, the shift in his weight. “You’re sure it wasn’t her?”
“Her hair was scarlet. Bright. Waved and frizzy. Not straight like mine.”
Nadir’s heel tapped on the sand as the water brushed up and surrounded them. His lips pressed together, thought stretching over every muscle of his face.
“Any ideas?” she asked after a few moments.
“Sounds like a trick of the Sun,” he finally said.
“It’s the middle of the night.”
“What did she say?”
Nyssa’s insides tightened again, and she felt the sweat on her palms. “She… she said Arbina had sent her to tell me there was another.”
Nadir’s eyes widened. “What?”
“That’s what I said.”
“That…” Worry stretched over his features as he turned back to the ocean.
“Any ideas?” she asked.
“You're quite sure she said Arbina?"
Nyssa nodded.
Nadir rubbed the back of his neck. "I can think of a couple of possibilities. That Arbina or the Sun is using future daughters of Promise to reach out to you. Lovi knew Arbina pretty well. Probably one of the only ones who didn’t think of her as crazy. And he actually knew the Sun before the curse... If anyone knows what's happening, it is him. I’ll ask.”
"How would the Sun or Arbina already know future daughters?"
"Arbina wouldn't, especially with her being burned, which makes me think this is the Sun toying with things. Time happens all at once for the Architects," he said. "They can see it all in mirrors or doorways, choosing which to go through, bringing one part of the future or the past to what we see is the present. Since Draven released the Sun, even if it is only in her phoenix form, she can see through those doorways again."
