In a flash, the sides of my face were cradled with a firm grip. Lost to my anger and fear, I couldn’t see who was touching me, but the instant their hand settled on my skin I felt heavy—drowsy even—and my grip falters, hands falling to my sides.
I blinked, trying to focus. Sidrick’s kind face held an apology as he stared back at me.
“What are you doing?” I rasped, my head lulling into his grasp.
“I’m sorry, Nyleeria,” he said, and I finally understood what was happening.
It took everything in me to look him in the eyes. “You’re stealing my powers,” I breathed, and then the remaining strength in my body vanished and blackness claimed me.
Chapter 40
Divided We Fall
The air was thick with the heavy scent of damp canvas. My mouth was dry, body leaden, and head pounding.
Gods, what in the seven hells happened?
Throwing the back of my forearm over my eyes to block out the light filtering in through my eyelids, I tried to recall what happened, but the last thing I remembered was watching the rabbits roast over the fire.
Groaning, I slid my arms under the covers and pulled them up to my chin. Slowly blinking my eyes open, I wasn’t surprised to find the thick, light-green canvas ceiling that confirmed I was in a tent. I laid there for long moments, my normally spry fae body begging me to fall back asleep, and I almost obliged until I heard movement.
Iwantedto sit up straight and spring into action. What happened was more of a chin tilt before I realized it was just Artton.
“What happened?” I groaned.
“You don’t remember?” He asked, genuinely surprised—or was he relieved?
Blindly, I felt around and was rewarded with what I thought was a rucksack. Pulling it toward me with more effort than I cared toexpend at the moment, I slid it under my head to prop myself up. With blurred vision, I found him crouching at the foot of my bedroll.
“Of all the time you’ve spent with me, do I strike you as the kind of person that would ask you what happened if I knew?” I said.
He huffed. “No. But you also didn’t strike me as murderous either, but here we are.”
“What?!” I said, throwing my covers to the side and sitting up. “Ow!” I whimpered, pressing the heels of my palms against my eye sockets to stop the pounding headache.
“Here,” Artton said shifting his weight, “drink this.”
Reluctantly, I reached for the cup and instantly regretted it. Clenching my jaw, I leaned forward, grasped the warm mug and lifted it up, only for my stomach to roil when the scent hit me. “Oh my Gods, Artton. It smells like feet.”
“Doesn’t taste much better either,” he said.
Not for the first time in the last few minutes, I groaned, then sucked it up, held my breath, and chugged it in one go. Even with my breath held, the liquid threatened to come back up, forcing me to put a hand over my mouth and swallow hard.
“Augh, that was disgusting,” I said, half gagging.
“Here.” Artton replaced the mug with a skin, and I drank deeply from it, the cool water washing down the taste.
“Thanks,” I said, handing it back to him.
Warmth radiated from my stomach outward like a lifeline. I flopped backward and allowed whatever he’d just given me time to work its glorious way through me. It took a few minutes before permeating every cell, and although it didn’t take my headache away, it helped enough that it no longer hurt to blink. That’s when I remembered what Artton had just said to me.
“Were you joking just now when you called memurderous?” I asked.
His silence what answer enough.
“Fuck.” I sighed. “I’m not going to like what happened, am I?”
“None of uslikedwhat happened, Spark.”
