Nyssa
Somewhere, during some second or another, everything around us changes, and we are standing back in BlackFen Edge with the drizzle soaking us to the bone.
“Uhm,” I mutter, looking around.
The gods look equally confused.
Rain needles my face. The village smells normal—peat smoke, chip fat, wet grass. Too normal.
“Either we got booted, or we blinked wrong,” I say, wiping drizzle out of my eyes. The glow under my skin stays banked, nasty-small. The hinge hums along my spine like a snake waiting to be offended.
“Not booted,” Dreven says, too still. “Pulled.”
“Pulled by whom?” I ask, looking around and then stop when I see Taye.
“By me,” she says, moving closer.
Dastian hisses and moves closer, holding his hand up. “Stay there.”
“Why did you pull us out?” Dreven asks, his voice more of a growl than I’ve ever heard it. He is pissed.
“Because Nyssa isn’t ready. She is in between.”
Her eyes land on me, sharp, focused, unnatural. “I know who you are,” I say.
“I know you think you know,” she replies. “But you don’t know anything, child.”
“So enlighten me.”
Taye blinks at me and steps to the side as a couple who appear to be on holiday in our sleepy little village amble past in hiking gear and waterproofs.
They walk straight past me, almost walking into me and smile at Taye, who gives me a small, disinterested wave.
“Hey,” I snap. “I’m standing right here.”
The couple keep on walking.
“They can’t hear you, dear. Or see you for that matter. You are… in between.”
That word just pisses me off.
“In between what?” I demand.
“Alive and crowned,” Taye says, looking bored as a tax auditor. “You’re phased. You chose the hinge, so now you get all the joy of existing in the seam until you learn to fix where you stand.”
“Fix how?” I ask. “Knitting? Prayer? Blood sacrifice?”
Her mouth twitches. “You are Shadow’s axis.”
“And that means no one can see me?” I ask, not liking where this is going. “Twice dead and no longer mortal. Is that right?”
“Something like that. You are hovering in the in-between spaces.”
“So how do I un-hover?”
“By doing something The Order will put you on a hit list for.”
Dreven makes a noise like a feral wolf and moves in front of me. “Don’t threaten her, Tabitha.”
