Which was when she felt something wrap around her ankles.
A shadow consumed her core. She gasped for air and opened her eyes to nothing but black and silence around her. Trapped. Her voice cried out into the void. She searched around her, but there was nothing. Not her sister. Not her Second. Not their horses.
Just black.
She closed her eyes and pulled for the creature that was consuming her.
Let me out, she told it.
The tense silence that filled her told her it did not expect to be heard. Her eyes opened once more, and in front of her was a mirror. She was standing in front of it, naked. Her own grief-stricken eyes stared back at her.
You cannot scare me, she continued. Let me go.
The mirror vanished into smoke. Everything spun around her. And then—
She gasped for air, thrown back into reality as a ragdoll.
Hands were on her cheeks, and the noise of Nyssa shouting in her face made her ears hurt.
“Shut up,” she groaned. “I’m fine.”
“Drae!” Nyssa’s arms wrapped around her desperately. “Drae, I thought you were dying—”
“I’m fine, I—” a sudden pain shot through her ankles, and she pushed Nyssa back so that she could see her feet. Red hand print whelps and bubbled blisters stared back at her. She could feel the searing pain of it in her bones, and she grunted at herself under her breath.
“Come,” Lex said, wrapping an arm around Aydra, “We need to leave before they come back.”
Aydra grabbed hold of Lex’s body and nearly gave out as soon as she tried to stand. Her knees buckled at the agonizing pain shooting through her, and she shook her head quickly. “Nope, put me down. Down!”
Lex sat her back down and then hovered over her. “We have to leave. You’ll need to get on my back.”
Help.
The noise of her horse’s voice filling her ears made her heart stop. She looked up and saw it lying down between two trees ahead, and she could see the same reddened whelp around its ankle.
“No—” Aydra started to crawl towards it, ignoring the protests of Lex and Nyssa. She sat down beside it and rubbed its cheek.
It’s okay. I’ve got you, she promised it.
“My Queen, there is nothing we can do,” Lex said. “The Noctuans are waking. We have to leave.”
Aydra didn’t look away from her horse. “Go get help,” she told them. “Go. Now.”
“We cannot leave you—”
“And I will not leave her,” Aydra interjected.
“But the Noctuans—”
“Are friends. Now go,” Aydra cut Nyssa off. She looked up at them over her shoulder, her jaw tensing at the sight of their bewildered faces. “I will be fine. But I will not risk the two of you’s safety. I made a mistake coming this far inside so late. I am injured. It will call to the ones that may not heed my words. You have to get out of here. Now.”
The pair did not move.
Aydra was quickly losing her patience.
“Go! Now!” Aydra nearly shouted.
“My Lady, I cannot leave you,” Lex told her.
“Yes, you will,” Aydra insisted. “Your orders are to take care of my sister. Go to the Village of Dreams and see to it she is safe. Find someone there with a cart that can help you come back to retrieve us. I am not leaving her here to die.”
“But…” Nyssa crouched down in front of her. “What if the Venari find you?” she said with widened eyes. “What if the Noctuans—”
“My orders are to take care of you,” Lex interjected to Aydra.
“And I am giving you new orders. As your Queen, I demand it,” Aydra said sternly.
Lex’s jaw tightened, but she nodded nonetheless. She grasped Nyssa’s shoulders and pulled her up to her feet. “Come, princess. We must go quickly.”
“No! No, I’m not leaving her—”
“Nyssa, we must go!” Lex nearly shouted. “You will see her again—”
“By any means necessary,” Aydra called to Lex.
Lex’s hand struck Nyssa’s cheek. Nyssa gasped and stared at her with wilding eyes.
“You—”
“If you think I am going to give my life for your kicking and screaming, you are wrong,” Lex hissed, her hand in Nyssa’s face. “Your sister is hurt, but she can take care of herself. If we stay here much longer, we will be eaten or worse. You will listen to me, princess. Now get on your horse and shut up.”
Nyssa’s mouth ceased movement, and she looked towards Aydra.
Aydra raised a brow. “Listen to her,” Aydra demanded. “It could mean your life.”
Lex was staring sternly down at the princess when she turned again, but Aydra didn’t miss the smirk and wink Lex gave her when she met her gaze. Aydra clenched her jaw to keep from smiling.
The noise of their horses’ hooves on the dirt quickly vanished just as the sun set around her. Aydra was torn between starting a fire or keeping herself in the dark so as to not attract more Noctuans than she would already.
But as the chill of the forest surrounded her, she decided she would rather die swiftly in the teeth of a Noctuan than slowly in the cold.
She’d just got the fire started with what she could crawl around and find when she felt creatures familiar to her coming up on every side of her. Her horse began to shift hysterically, but she placed a hand on its neck and tried to calm it.
A low growl cut through the silence of the rustling winds. And slowly from the darkness, emerged one of the most beautifully menacing wolf creatures she’d ever seen.
Sharp yellow-green eyes pierced the darkness. The slender of its elongated narrow wolf-nose rose into the light of the
