Page 117 of Daughter of No Worlds

If I become lost, I will never be found again.

I will never be found again.

Chapter Forty

Tisaanah

Iremember only the dreams.

I lost myself in a gushing stream of vivid images, drowning in fragments of people that I didn’t know and yet knew intimately. A blonde-haired woman wearing a beautiful purple cloak taking a bite of an apple. A pair of weathered hands wrapping around a door handle. The distinct rush of cold as I stepped into a pool of cold water in a place I’d never seen before, pressing my toes on intricate ceramic tile. My throat contracting around voices, voices, voices.

When I snapped my eyes open into black darkness, I inhaled so sharply that I sucked in beads of the sweat rolling down my face.

My head throbbed with such vicious intensity that I could practically hear it on the inside of my skull. Saliva pooled at the back of my throat. In a distant thought that was almost drowned out by my pulsating headache, I recognized that I really, really did not want to vomit in bed.

I slid back the covers and relished the momentarily distracting coolness of tile beneath my bare feet, then I staggered to the washroom abutting the bedroom and leaned over the sink, clutching the edges.

I flicked my head to swish a strand of dangling back hair out of my face. It fell immediately back where it was, directly in front of my vision.

Bare footsteps approached and a soft, white light slowly imbued the room, illuminating my face in the mirror.

My face. Max’s face.

Myface.

Only very distantly, very far away, did it occur to me that this was not what I expected to see.

“Max.” A whisper, hoarse with sleep. I looked over my shoulder to see Nura lingering in the doorway, blinking at me blearily, hair falling in wild, loose curls around her shoulders. She looked so… young.

“Are you alright?” she asked.

I opened my mouth to respond, but instead, I woke up.

* * *

“You’re alright.”

A hand rubbed my back in smooth, wide circles.

It was dark.

Everything hurt.

Max.

I didn’t realize I said his name aloud until I heard the voice answer, “Don’t talk.”

My eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness, and I found myself looking up at dangling silver braids. Nura. I could only lift my head just long enough to recognize her. Then a spasm shot through my muscles, and I rolled onto my side, curling up.

I just saw him. I could have sworn I did. But that wasn’t right. He shouldn’t be here. Was it a dream?

“Where — is he?”

I barely got the words out.

“I don’t know, Tisaanah,” Nura murmured. “No one knows.”

My stomach clenched in nausea, but my cheeks tightened.Good.“I hope he’s far away…”

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