She was halfway through the thyme when the dizziness hit.
One moment she was cutting a stem, the next the world tilted sideways and her vision blurred at the edges. Her hands went numb. The shears slipped from her fingers and landed somewhere she couldn't see.
"Chloe?"
Freya's voice came from far away. Or maybe close. She couldn't tell anymore.
The soil was pulling at her. That was the only way to describe it. Like something beneath the surface had wrapped invisible fingers around her bones and was dragging her down, down, down into the cold dark earth.
She tried to stand. Her legs wouldn't cooperate.
"Chloe!"
Hands caught her shoulders just before she fell forward. The world spun, colors bleeding into each other, and then she was on her back, staring up at the gray February sky.
Freya's face appeared above her, copper hair haloed by clouds. Her green eyes were wide with alarm.
"Stay still. Don't try to move."
"I'm fine." The words came out slurred, unconvincing.
"You're not fine. You just collapsed." Freya's hands were on her face, her wrist, checking her pulse. "Your skin is ice cold. What happened?"
Chloe tried to gather her thoughts. They kept scattering, slipping away like water through fingers. "The soil. I felt... it was pulling."
"Pulling how?"
"I don't know. Like it wanted something from me." She closed her eyes against another wave of dizziness. "Like it was trying to take something."
Freya swore softly. "Can you sit up?"
"Maybe."
With Freya's help, she managed to get upright. The world swayed but didn't spin. Progress. She sat there on the cold ground, her back against Freya's raised bed, and tried to remember how to breathe normally.
"This isn't coincidence," Freya said quietly. "The land sickness, the way it's spreading, and now this. Something is targeting you specifically. We need to tell someone. The Council, or..."
The crunch of boots on gravel made them both look up.
Corin stood at the corner of the building, a crate of honey jars balanced against his hip. His eyes swept the scene, taking in Chloe on the ground, Freya crouched beside her, the scattered herbs and fallen shears.
The crate hit the ground with a thud.
"What happened?" He was already moving toward them, his long strides eating up the distance. "Chloe. Are you hurt?"
"I'm okay." She tried to stand and immediately regretted it. The dizziness surged back, and she would have fallen if Corin hadn't been there suddenly, his hand closing around her arm, steadying her.
"She collapsed while harvesting," Freya said. "Just dropped. I barely caught her in time."
Corin's jaw tightened. He guided Chloe to sit on the low stone wall that bordered the garden, his hand warm and solid against her back. He didn't let go.
"What happened?" His voice was controlled but something simmered beneath the surface.
Chloe took a breath, trying to order her thoughts. "I was cutting herbs. The soil felt wrong, but it's felt wrong for weeks, so I didn't think much of it. And then..." She shook her head. "It was like something grabbed me. Something in the ground. It wanted to pull me down."
"Pull you down how?"
"I don't know how to explain it." She looked at her hands, still trembling slightly. "It felt like it was trying to drain me. Like it recognized something and wanted to take it."
