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I dropped my hands into the water and got another palmful to splash on my face. I let myself have another minute with the sun on my face and the water soothing me, making me forget how much I wanted to collapse and sleep for a week.

Nyx might not survive a week without his injuries tended to.

I sat back in the water and took my boots off. Standing, I flexed my toes in the sand. I tossed my boots far enough up the beach to not get washed away, and started toward the inlet. I had to take it slow, but it felt good to walk with my feet in the water. My stomach hurt, but food could wait.

I needed reeds and then roots and, hopefully, white bark to mix with the reeds. I searched my memory for what my grandmother had taught me and made a mental list of plants to look for. I didn’t know what would be native to this area. Would any of the plants I knew even grow here?

I hoped so.

I followed the edge of the water around and stopped in my tracks.

A village sat nestled on the inlet.

FIFTY-TWO

ZARIA

Ihad to be hallucinating. I must have hit my head in the crash landing. Maybe none of this was real, just the creation of my dying mind as we lay broken on the rocks of the Wild Mountains. It felt like the day I was taken all over again. Like my reality had shifted, and nothing was real.

I blinked, raising an aching arm to rub my eyes.

The village was still there.

What in the name of the Goddess is this?

Before I could fully process the shock, a blade pressed against my throat.

I froze.

“How did you find this place?” a deep, masculine voice growled next to my ear.

I jumped. I could sense the size of the fae behind me. I would be no match for him even if I could unsheathe my sword without losing my head.

My mouth went dry. I slowly swallowed. “We crashed here. We were injured, and I saw the lake from the air. It was our only hope,” I said as calmly as I could.

The blade dug in, a breath away from breaking skin. “Impossible. You did not see this lake from the sky. How did you get here?” he demanded, anger thick in his growl.

I raised my hands in the air, trying to show him I wasn’t a threat. “I swear, my flyer and I were chased into the Wild Mountains. We were both injured and needed to land before my magic ran out. I saw the lake and aimed us here, but we crashed. He needs my help. Please don’t harm me.” I didn’t think about how much I was telling this stranger until it was too late. The words had already tumbled out of me, and now our fates were in his hands.

The fae sniffed deeply, his nose to my hair. I held steady. “You reek of Dragon’s Bane. Explain yourself.”

“We were attacked with it. My dragon was barely conscious when I got us out. We had no other choice but to land here,” I pleaded. We couldn’t make it this far to be killed by an entirely different foe.

“Impossible.”

“What is?”

“No one from the outside can locate this sanctuary.”

“Sanctuary?” I asked, not understanding what he meant.

The fae tensed. “Never mind that. Who attacked you?”

I swallowed carefully. “The Vivi Mortui.”

He gasped and didn’t reply right away. “Impossible.”

“I swear to you. We only just escaped. If we had any other option, we wouldn’t have come here.”