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Chapter 5
Elowen
My stomach dropped, and I jolted awake, bracing for a fall that never came.
“I’m sorry, sweetling.” Mum loomed over me. “I hoped you could sleep a little longer, but Mireya is here and ready to examine you.”
It wasn’t a dream.
I rubbed my face and looked around the room again. The three men from before were still there, including my dead father, but an older woman had now joined them. Her dark hair was threaded with silver and swept neatly away from her face. Cream robes edged in silver fell almost to the floor, and she held a leather medical case in one hand. There was something doctor-like about her, from her calm eyes and immaculate appearance to the patient expression of someone used to dealing with frightened people.
She met my eyes and smiled. “Elowen.”
I sat up slowly, my head clearer than before. Something was very wrong here, and I still couldn’t make sense of it. Everything around me felt far too real to be a dream and far too impossible to be true.
“I am Physician Mireya, but you may call me Mireya.” She placed a delicate hand against her chest. “May I approach your nest?”
Mum—no, Eleanor—placed a hand on my shoulder, and I flinched, my stomach tightening. She pulled it away immediately.
The hurt on her face made me feel guilty, but I couldn’t help it. My mum was dead and had been for years. God… am I going crazy?
I looked between the physician and everyone else in the room, then finally nodded. What else can I do?
Mireya approached the bed with slow, careful steps, as though she were trying not to frighten me any more. I don’t think that’s possible. By the time she reached me, I had pulled my knees tightly against my chest.
“We can no longer detect any Omega pheromones, Mireya,” Eleanor said. “And she seems so confused.”
“I’d rather hear from Elowen directly, if that’s all right, my friend.” Mireya gently squeezed Eleanor’s hand. “Would you mind waiting with your mates? I think a little space might make this easier.”
Eleanor hesitated, then nodded and gave me a sad smile that she probably meant to be reassuring. She went back to the men at the other end of the room.
“All right, my dear. I’ve heard from your parents, but what I’d really like is to hear from you. Tell me what happened.”
“I don’t think you’d believe me if I did.”
She seemed puzzled by my answer, then straightened slightly. “Do you see the grey at my temples?” She smiled. “I’ve been a physician for twenty-five years, my dear, and I promise you I’ve heard stranger things than you might imagine. Why don’t you tell me what happened, and we’ll take it from there, hmm?”
It took me longer than was probably polite to answer, but my thoughts and memories were too muddled to put into words.
“Last night…” I stopped and swallowed, suddenly unsure. “I think it was last night. I was out celebrating with my sisters—”
“Ivy and Nora,” Mireya said.
“Yes. We were walking back home, and…” I took a deep breath. “I was having these visions. Seeing things that didn’t make sense.”
“What kind of things?”
I looked past her towards the other four people in the room. Eleanor looked so worried that I hesitated to continue. Part of me desperately wanted to reassure her simply because she looked so much like Mum, but I needed to do this for myself and, more importantly, for Ivy and Nora.
“The stars were moving. The whole sky, really.” I covered my face with my hands. “This sounds insane,” I whispered, more to myself than anyone else.
“Not at all. Keep going. What else happened?”
“The ground beneath me started… changing and pulling me away from my sisters. I started seeing a different place, somewhere that wasn’t England.” The memory of stone beneath my feet and dunes stretching into the distance came back far too clearly. “Here, I think. I started seeing this place.” I looked at her. “It sounds insane. I know.”
“I don’t think so,” she said, completely confident. “What happened next?”
“I don’t know. I just woke up here, in a place I’ve never seen before. My dead parents are here, everyone dresses and speaks differently, and…” I gestured weakly towards her. “Now you’re here.”
