The pressure at my temples was steadily increasing, and I kept rubbing at them, hoping to alleviate even a hint of the pain.
“Rain, are you sure that you are all right?”Jo asked inside my head, her voice thick with worry.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine,” I muttered and attempted to give her a reassuring look. I must have failed because the concern on her face held firm.
“Simply atrocious,” a high-pitched female voice said, the sound grating and unfamiliar. I whipped my head back around and pinned the voice on a snooty looking courtier a few seats away that was draped in far too many jewels for a casual dinner.
“How…?” The word just slipped out, and both Jo and my father gave me a curious look.
“How what, Raynella?” he pressed.
Before I could answer, a sharp bolt of pain exploded inside my skull, and I let out a pitiful whimper, clutching my head. A red hot knife attempted to pry my eyes from their sockets, and I pushed back from the table. “I’m sorry,” I managed to grit out through tightly clenched teeth. “This migraine is only getting worse. I think I need to go lie down.”
“Of course,” he said hesitantly as if he could tell it was more than a mere headache. “I will send a servant up with the rest of your meal shortly.”
“No, that’s okay,” I said, backing away from the table. “I had plenty. I don’t need anything else. I’ll… I’ll see you at breakfast tomorrow. I think I need some rest.”
Sprinting to my room, I only just closed my door when the searing pain detonated with such intensity that I could no longer hold back my screams. This was not the sharp lightning from before. This was acid. Venom. It was a cancerous poison that consumed every cell in my brain only to spit it back out so it could dissolve them once more.
I managed to crawl onto my bed moments before the agonizing sensation fully consumed me, and a wave of darkness pulled me under.
Chapter thirty
I wandered aimlessly through the rose maze. Everything around me was awash in a hazy glow, and my eyes swam in and out of focus. I felt lost, yet a strong wave of déjà vu swept over me.
I rounded a corner and stopped as I saw… myself.
Pausing, I watched as the scene unfolded before me. The open rift that stole my life away glowed with that striking blue light, and a past version of me stood on the other side, peering through at the Walker. The familiar events occurred only a few days ago, yet I felt like I was looking at a stranger.
It was like I was a ghost in my own mind.
The Walker glared at the other Rain still standing in Jersey and opened his mouth to speak. Only this time I understood him.
“I take it you're the girl everybody has made such a fuss about? Well come on, I don’t have all day.”
Before I could even take a step toward the rift to warn my past self to run, there was a harsh tug inside me, and the world shifted, dumping me into another memory.
This time Past Rain stood outside the throne room pacing in front of two guards. I watched silently, as the scene once again played out just as I remembered it.
“Princess,” the guards intoned, bowing their heads.
“You don’t have to do that,” Past Rain said.
The guard furrowed his brow. “Do you need help?”
I wanted to scream yes, I did need help, but once again I was being tossed through a kaleidoscope of images.
Scene after scene, memory after memory played out in front of me, and I was helpless to stop it, or even slow it down.
I watched my past self meet the sisters.
“Greetings,” they said in unison.
I watched my father speak to Dey at the breakfast table the first day I met him.
“I thought you prepared her?” my father asked.
“Apologies, my king,” Dey replied. “She has not been adjusting well. I mentioned our magic, but I was afraid I might damage her psyche if I tried to tell her too much. She is quite fragile.”
