Strong hands and a soothing voice pinned her, “You are going to be okay.”
Her screams grew louder, her nails biting into flesh helped to ground her. She was feral, trying to bite, snap, do anything. There was a sharp prick on her arm, and in an instant, the world fell away in blanketed nothingness.
***
She dreamt of the woods. Towering trees, weaving a canopy of brilliant leaves. The green leaves were starting to turn color, the tips curling, golden hues and fiery reds and oranges changing the summer into the comforting blanket and refreshing air of fall.
She stood, looking up, breathing in musky tones. The dappled light danced across her features, and the corner of her mouth pulled up. Looking down, her feet carried her into the unknown. And that was the biggest adventure.
Crunch, crunch, crunch.
The leaves crinkled beneath her, and her simple black pants and deep green shirt flowed in the gentle currents of the wind. As she traveled deeper, the leaves and the light casted her in a golden haven, the vibrancy taking her breath away.
Golden, like a burning sunset. Golden like his eyes.
She scrunched up her nose, her mind bending and falling with the thoughts, her heart picking up its beat. The world around her flashed, the leaves dropping off the trees, ice racing along the trunks and branches.
In the distance, screams and howls mixed into a haunting melody, and she was frozen. Golden, like his smile. Swallowing hard, unable to catch her breath, the smell of smoke filled her senses. Like his heart. The wind howled, blustering around her, sounding like a pack of wolves baying at the moon. Her hair stood on end, but she wasn’t afraid.
“Em.”
It was that voice, familiar yet unknown. Smooth and entrancing. Dark and enchanting. Slowly looking over her shoulder, at the icy landscape encasing around her, a figure stood in the shadows, his features blurry, but the sword glinted in his hand, and behind him, smoke oozed around him like gas, dancing toward her.
“You will come for me.”
She couldn’t react, couldn’t move, as that darkness rushed toward her. A pulsing green light cut through the shadows, the man watching as it overtook her.
His dark voice commanded, “And you will be mine.”
Emory bowed to it, to him, as her world became nothing more than the shadows and his voice luring her into that void.
***
Emory woke up, screaming. Blood curdling, heart wrenching screaming. Strange tubes were in her nostrils, draping down her body and taped to her arm, and a persistent beeping sounded beside her. The room was small, drapes cornering her in on the bed, shielding her from the world—or the world from her. Sweat clung to her aching body, as the dream quickly faded from her mind.
She tried to hold on, to remember, but as the room came into focus around her, the dream left, leaving her breathless.
“Oh, good. You’re awake. Sweetie, how do you feel?”
A woman appeared, holding papers on a board, looking at the instruments around her, her analyzing eyes roaming over Emory as she took notes.
Emory tilted her head, taking in her loose brown hair and kind eyes, her white shirt and plain blue pants, giving no indication of where she was. “I feel...sleepy,” her voice rasped in a gravelly tone.
“That would be the sedation wearing off.” She flipped the page of the board she held. “Emory Reia Fae, is it? That’s a beautiful name. Can you tell me your age? Or where your home is?”
Swallowing, her throat constricted. “Thank you. And, um...” She closed her eyes, trying to fight off the burning panic rising in her. “I’m fifteen years old. Turning sixteen.”
The woman nodding, smiling softly.
“I don’t know where my home is. I don’t...remember anything else.”
The corner of the woman’s mouth turned down. “That’s okay, sweetie. Emory, you’re lucky to be alive. You have been in the hospital for a week and were in a coma. It’s not abnormal when your body has gone through...well, extreme circumstances, and your MRI was showing a lot of stress to your brain. It’s not abnormal to experience amnesia. Or memory loss.”
She blinked, the words falling around her, not making any sense.
The woman continued, “I’m your nurse, but we need to take it slow. The police have released a report with your information, so your family will know where you are. Let’s just get you feeling better, okay?”
Tears slipped from Emory’s eyes, and all she could do was stare at the nurse, her mind scrambling.
“What are these things around me? What’s a hospital?”
The nurse tensed, tilting her head. “Darling, what do you mean?”
“I don’t know what these things are! A nurse, a hospital! Where am I?” Her voice climbed several octaves, and she succumbed to the panic. The nurse pressed a button, and coolness spread through her veins. The world tilted once more.
“Emory, breathe. You are going to be okay. Everything will be okay.”
The nurse and room started to dissolve and bleed away, becoming blurry. It was her fading whispers that filled her. “I don’t know where I am... I don’t know...”
Her words carried her to a place where nothing was focused, and she drifted, lost amongst the current.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Emory
Two Months Later
“Emory, you will need to talk to us for this to work.”
Emory stared down at her hands, memorizing each detailed line and crinkle of her skin, not wanting to look up at the woman posted across the desk from her. Her hair was tightly bound in a perfect bun, her black wardrobe too stuffy and too perfect. The folder lay open on the table, the sheets rustling against one another with each turn of the fan.
Two months had passed since she had been found. Each day, Emory felt her conviction to find out the truth of her past dissolve until it was nothing more
