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I didn’t know how long I’d been in her room, but by the time I was strong enough to be moved—not nearly strong enough to walk on my own—servants took me back to my room, where I fell into a deep, dreamless slumber.
13
Idrifted in and out of sleep. It felt like I had a heavy weight around my ankles, and it kept pulling me underwater so that I couldn’t breathe. When my lungs were on the verge of bursting and I was about to drown, I would resurface again, gasping for air.
I lost count of how many times it happened. I lost track of time. All I knew was that I was in my bed, and that it was dark outside.
Lucia had tried to kill me—the bitch—and Nylah had saved my life.
Servants came and went—Bessie and others—refilling water pitchers I couldn’t remember drinking from, checking my temperature in case Nylah had to come for me again. But she didn’t come.
That had to be a good thing. I was in my own room. I couldn’t remember when it had happened, but it meant I had to be out of danger if I wasn’t in the High Priestesses’ bed anymore.
When I slept—when it didn’t feel like I was drowning, and I could just rest—I dreamed. I wasn’t sure of what—of people I didn’t know, of places I’d never seen before. In one dream, I was surrounded by light and by people who loved me, but in a separate dream, King Rainier was there.
He was standing on the horizon, waving, calling my name. I wanted to answer, but my voice was gone, or the wind blew my words away before they reached him.
“Ellie,” I heard him. “Ellie.”
“I can’t reach you,” I said.
“Ellie, you’re dreaming.”
I blinked my eyes open, and I was in my room once more. Bessie had piled blankets high on my bed, but I was shivering.
Rainier sat on the edge of my bed, his face riddled with concern.
“Your Highness,” I croaked, fully awake now.
I tried to sit up, but he shook his head.
“Don’t get up. Please. Just rest.”
I sank back onto my pillows. Rainier reached for a glass of water and handed it to me. When I pressed it to my lips, the water was soothing. My skin was scorching hot.
“Do I have a fever?” I asked.
Rainier nodded. “It’s your body, trying to fight the magic.”
“Will it last long?”
“Not too much longer. Nylah’s magic is fighting it. You have a fever because there is a war raging within you.”
“Feels about right,” I said.
Rainier smiled sadly at that. “I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For Lucia and what she did to you—for her behavior, overall. Sometimes, she doesn’t know her limits.”
I stared at Rainier. “She did it intentionally.”
He sighed. “She’s being dealt with. I won’t allow her to do anything like that again.”
“How can you control her?” I asked. “What stops her from doing it again?”
“She won’t. I talked to her. And she…” Rainier frowned. He seemed to have lost track of what he’d wanted to say—or of what had happened.
