Page 27 of The Chains You Defy

He had come for me.

I was safe.

He had come for me.

I was safe.

Dion—my dark rainstorm in the forest.

For the first time in gods-know-how-long, a deep sense of safety settled over me. In my friend’s arms and wrapped up in his magic, I wanted to cling to the certainty that I was sheltered, but the more I fought against drowning in oblivion, the more the unconsciousness threatened to conquer me.

Before the darkness could claim me completely, Dion’s voice brushed my ears like phantom caresses, but I had no clue if his words were real or imagined.

“Don’t you dare to die, Nayana. I forbid you to. And if you don’t obey me, I’ll find you in Udiona and destroy everything until Noelk has no other choice but to return you to me. Surely, you don’t want that on your conscience, right? Still, I’ll do so and much worse if you force my hand. I need you way too much. Nayana—you’re my salvation.”

This was not my cot.

The surface I was lying on was way too soft to be my cot. And even though I kept my eyes closed, I could distinguish that the light surrounding me was much too bright.

Also, warmth enveloped me like a tender cloud, and my muscles had stopped fighting against themselves. On top of all the evidence telling me I was still alive, something cool brushed over my forehead, and a slight sound of pure desperation escaped my lips as the gentle cold suddenly disappeared.

Forcing myself further into consciousness, I stirred as my eyelids fluttered. I was trying to take in my environment,but all I could do was blink against the blinding luminosity. “Too bright.”

Oh. The croaking noise permeating the air had beenmyvoice, rasping from disuse and maltreatment.

“Wait a moment, you should get used to the light soon.” My thoughts were murky, but—

I knew that soft and caring tone.

“Ireas?”

“Cautious, Nayana. Don’t move too much. You need to stay put for a while longer.”

“Are you real? Or am I dead?” And if I were, why did I hearIreasin my afterlife?

“If you were dead, I’d be a terrible medic who should give up on his profession. Do you have such a low opinion of me?”

Even in my state, I could perceive the humor lacing his words.

“No, but—I didn’t dream that Dion was in my cell?” Finally, I managed to open my eyes without risking the light to torch my pupils. Although now that I thought about this, I realized the room was only immersed in a dim twilight.

Steadying my gaze, my eyes flickered to Ireas, and I couldn’t suppress a crooked smile as I spotted his disheveled hair and the gentle brown of his irises, which reminded me of molten chocolate, a treat I’d only tasted once in my life. Why I remembered the occasion—Rewani’s father had gotten remarried and had celebrated with his staff and their families—I couldn’t tell. Anyway, this solved the mystery of why Ireas’ eyes never failed to rouse my hunger.

“That was real. He found you, carried you out, and honestly, if he’d arrived only a second later—” Ireas’ facecontorted into a glower directed at me, and the expression was so alien on him, I did a double take. “They didn’t give you enough water. You nearly died of dehydration, Nayana. You were—we were almost too late.”

“Yes, I wasn’t supposed to get any food or fluids from day eight on, if I recall correctly. My memory is still a bit foggy.”

“No wonder. But to my relief, I have reason to believe you avoided suffering permanent damage. At least your mind seems to be recovering, judging by how lucid you sound. How your body fared through the ordeal—well, I’ll monitor your health very closely in the near future. Meanwhile, I hope you forgive me for force-feeding you liquids during the past few days.”

“What—days?”

“You were unconscious for almost four nights. But that’s not as awful as it sounds. On the contrary, your prone state ensured that the balms had enough time to work without you shifting too much.”

I nodded and realized with quite a lot of astonishment that the pain, indeed, wasn’t as bad as I recalled during my last conscious hours.

Cautiously, I started an inventory of problematic areas, as I’d done so often while I’d fought for my life during captivity. My skin felt tender in a lot of places—most likely still heavily bruised—my head throbbed, and each breath reminded me of how at least one of my ribs had been recently injured. But still, after all I’d endured, I was in a much better condition than I would have supposed to be in.

Did Ireas have any special fae ointments at hand to speed up healing?