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I force my eyes open, blinking against the darkness as my vision adjusts. For a moment, panic winds through my chest. Where am I?
Am I dead?
When I finally get my eyes to work again, I see wooden beams above my head. My fingers curl into a similarly carved wooden table. Something soft is beneath my body and head to cushion me from the hardness. I can’t feel much—no pain or happiness. I’m numb.
What happened?
My eyes close for a moment as I search my memories. It all comes back in a rush—the invasion, the king, Cora . . . the fall.
I threw myself from the top of the castle, so how am I alive?
I don’t seem to have much energy, and my body isn’t responding even though I want to jump up and demand an explanation, but I have just enough to slowly turn my head. It brings the rest of the room into view, and it is nothing like I have ever seen in either the Gilded Lands or the Shadow Lands. It is not dripping in riches or gold, nor is it sad and old. Beautifully carved wood frames a door etched with designs of monsters. Two stone windows sit on either side of it, the sun shining in and blocking my view. The floor is stone, appearing inviting and warm. The walls and ceiling are a mixture of stone and wood. I smell smoke—a fire maybe? The room I’m in seems small but well cared for and homey. Another scent reaches me then, salty and wild like the water I plunged into.
My heart stills for a moment as I remember the impact and the waves closing around me like a kiss goodbye. How did I survive that?
How could any human?
I meant to die, so how am I alive?
Something bright catches my eye. I have to blink to bring my vision into focus as I manage to lift my arm. My hand shakes from the force of the effort, but I grasp the bright thing and lift it to see it better. Strands of silken dark brown are interwoven with bright orange. Hair, I realize. It’s as bright as the sun. I trace it up and it ends at my head.
My hair . . .
What is happening? My hand drops, as I’m unable to hold it up any longer, and that’s when the wooden door opens. Fear courses through me, clawing at me to scream, to run, but I’m unable to. I lie here, watching as the monster freezes at the sightof me. Shock and fear are etched on his almost humanoid face, just as it must be on mine.
Both of us just stare at each other.
His skin is gray, with blue highlights of all shades. It’s not the gray hue of a stormy sky, but the gray you find only in the deepest parts of the ocean, though I do not know how I know that. His bright aqua eyes are tilted up and shaped more like a cat’s. His nose is not human, with just two slits above deep, blue, plush lips. He’s tall and covered in muscle, and he wears a bit of cloth around his hips. Slits line his throat, and his nails are black and long like talons. His hair is a stunning mixture of blacks and blues, and it falls around his shoulders in wet strands that somehow still look kempt.
Fear pulses through me as I stare, but my confusion wins out.
“Where am I?” I croak, my voice so hoarse and deep, it almost hurts to speak. “How am I alive?” I sputter into a coughing fit, and it unfreezes the monster man. He rushes to my side and lifts a crudely carved goblet to my lips after helping me sit up to sip the fresh, clean water. I shudder at the wet feeling of the hand on my back. It’s almost cold, unlike the warmth of this room, but the water washes away the sharpness in my throat, and I sigh in bliss as he carefully lays me down. It is a he? Because he could not be mistaken for anything else.
He’s neither man nor monster.
He’s something between.
“What happened?” I whisper, scarcely able to meet his bright eyes.
“I saved you. You fell. You were hurt, and I wasn’t sure if you were being hunted, so I brought you to my home. You are safe.” His voice is smooth and thunderous, like crashing waves against the rocky shoreline, but his words are disjointed, as if he’s not used to his voice.
I suppose I have to speak like that now, more used to screaming than speaking.
“How am I alive?” I repeat. My brain is scarcely able to comprehend what is happening.
“I used the magic we all possess to heal you, but it can only do so much. You have been resting for weeks now. I was not sure you would ever awaken,” he murmurs as he straightens a fur that is draped across me before hurrying away. I manage to lift my head to watch him as he ladles something that is simmering above an open fireplace into a bowl.
When he returns, I flinch, and he slows his movements, watching me carefully. When I do not move again, he sits me up, propping me on the table with pillows, and begins to scoop the food in the bowl onto a bent spoon before he lifts it to my mouth. I simply stare at him, my fear so strong, I almost choke on it, but as I open my mouth, all he does is carefully lay the spoon inside and feed me. At the first taste, I become ravenous, my hunger roaring to life, and he helps me eat the full bowl before bringing me another. My fear is still lingering in the back of my mind, but I quickly realize this is not a man, a human, to fear. This is a monster, and he has taken care of me for weeks. If he meant me harm, then he would have done it before now. It’s what finally gets me to speak again.
“I’m full, thank you,” I murmur, my manners slipping out.
His eyes jerk up to mine. “You are welcome.” He cleans as I watch him, seemingly as nervous as I am before he turns to me. “Do you have anyone I can take you to? Any family? I was not sure if I should leave you with the humans or—”
“No!” I realize I almost shouted when he stumbles back, so I slow down and calm myself, breathing slowly. “I have no one,” I tell him once I calm my beating heart.
It’s a lie but also a truth.
Cora will think I am dead. Mother and Father never cared, but I can’t break Cora’s heart any more than I already have. No, it is better that she thinks I am dead. She can finally be happy and move on with her life and stop saving me all the time. Nothing good ever comes from it. “I have no one,” I repeat.
