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He grabbed me by the shoulders, sitting me upright as his stare bored into me.
“You don’t remember jumping off the balcony?” he sputtered, his sepia-toned complexion a shade of pale I’d never seen before.
My hands splayed protectively over my stomach, my head rocking back and forth vehemently as I thought of the life growing inside me. “I remember, but I don’t know what happened. It’s like it wasn’t me. I would never do that!” I protested. “Why would I do that?”
Without responding, he scooped my quivering form into his strong arms and carried me back into the apartment. The movers still hadn’t arrived, even in my fugue state, my packed boxes still lined in a row, piled on top of one another as they waited to be carried out to the truck and transported the few miles to the castle.
Nyx carried me effortlessly to one of the bedrooms of the luxurious condo where I had been living for the past month. The rooms were freezing, as if the heat had died in the past few minutes.
“Why is it so cold in here?” I mumbled more to myself than Nyx.
“Because you had the balcony doors open,” he replied grimly.
The mattress sat up against the wall, and Nyx kicked it over with his foot, the piece falling to the ground with a muted thud as he laid me down. “Whatdoyou remember?” he pressed, releasing me to scrounge through the sealed boxes. He spun around as his hands closed on a thick, velour blanket, which he draped over my naked shape before wrapping me back into his arms.
“I was in the kitchen.” I nuzzled into him, relishing the feeling of his strong body protecting me, making me feel safe again. “I was eating and texting you.”
“No, Little Muse,” he sighed. “After that. When I came in.”
I flopped back on the bare mattress and stared at him, biting on my lower lip. “I don’t really remember. I had no control. I heard a voice…”
He gritted his teeth, as if my answers were frustrating him, but I had nothing else to give him.
“I don’t understand what you were doing up there, why you jumped,” he pressed.
I shook my head again, trying to gain some clarity. “I really don’t know. Do you think I was exposed to some toxic agent because of the fire?”
“A toxic gas that made you want to jump off a balcony?” Nyx asked.
He was right. Poison would make me sick, not suicidal. I’d never been suicidal a day in my life, not even when my father was at his worst in my childhood. Life was worth fighting for, even during the worst of times. I had so much more to live for now than I ever had in my life.
“Okay, you were eating and texting, and then what happened?” Nyx pressed, but all of this was beginning to give me a headache. My mind strained too hard, and the memories were slipping away more for it.
“I don’t know,” I moaned. “I really don’t remember what happened.”
“You just went from eating, to hearing a voice, and then you jumped off the balcony? Did you go out to get some air? Were you feeling sick? Were you going to fly? Were you unable to shift?”
The peppering of questions wasn’t helping matters, and my eyes darted around the barren room for something to trigger my memory.
Again, I swung my head, apprehension spiraling through me. “I wouldn’t just jump over the edge without shifting first,” I insisted.
“You need to concentrate,” he pushed.
I wished he would leave me in peace and let me get my head on straight. As if the gods had heard my silent prayer, a voice rang through the apartment.
“Hello?” someone called out from the entranceway. “Steelshire Moving Company!”
Nyx tensed and fell back on his haunches, his gorgeous, golden-green eyes narrowing.
“Dammit, now they show up?” he growled, untangling himself from me. “Don’t move. I’ll be right back.”
I wasn’t going anywhere, not when my mind was such a mess and I was still naked, but I was grateful for the few minutes of silence. I needed to get my thoughts in order.
A fugue, a terrible, dangerous stunt…
There was only one feasible explanation for what had happened short of me actually losing my mind: I’d been hypnotized, a spell cast over me.
But who and why? No one would want to hurt me. I was a nobody, a cabaret dancer from the wrong side of the tracks. Who would want to harm a pregnant fae?
