✦ 𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐆𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐍𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ✦

Eight

The suffocating feeling of perception imbalance was beginning to feel like an endless turmoil to her.

She was unable to open her eyes, but her hearing and sense of smell were all processing things.

She was paralyzed, unable to move.

Her whole life seemed to be flashing by in her eyes by every passing second that went by.

When she was a toddler of a young age—how was she able to remember that?

Then as a child, learning how to ride a horse as her mother giggled with glee when she finally managed the reins correctly.

And her father, with his silver hair and many tattoos, squeezing her into a hug when she finally beat Aedion in sword-fighting as a teenager. She would never know if he let her win on purpose or not.

All the recollection of the past that led her to this very moment.

It was as if someone was handpicking memories and sorting through it to find something of importance.

When Mala regained some of her senses partially, she scented multiple fae around her. All of them similar to Nyx's and Cassian's scents, but there were some more powerful and ancient fragrances that circled her mind. How old were the fae in this room?

In her trance, Mala witnessed the Wyrdgate that she had encountered earlier that day. Or was it yesterday? She couldn't tell how much time had passed.

With her hearing only just being brought back to life she was only able to make out a few words, "...girl...not yet...can't...I don't know...difficult...barriers...fire..."

As if on command, Mala's mind flared, and she imagined walls of flame and the shifting memories finally dissipated. She could hear a male hiss in disappointment for whatever strange reason.

Her hearing and sense of smell were one of the only things she was able to use. She had no clue as to what other senses she had regained.

She soon found out after about a minute had passed and she couldn't discern the whispering tone the other fae had been conspiring with only a second ago.

A light touch on her forehead by a cold hand and it was gone in an instant, someone yelping.

"She's burning up," a voice said, and it was louder than Mala had heard before, though she couldn't figure out who it was from.

"Do you think we gave her too much?" another asked, worried.

"I think you dosing her with it was too much in the first place," someone retorted angrily. Was that Cassian?

The hand that had previously touched her forehead now brushed a few stray strands of hair from her face.

A small noise escaped Mala's mouth, and the hand stilled, as well as all of the other noises in the room.

"Mala..?" a fae spoke softly. It sounded like Nyx.

With strength she didn't know it took, she cracked open her eyes. She expected a bright light shining onto her face, but it wasn't such. Instead, she found Nyx hovering above her.

"What...what the fuck..." was all she managed to get out, her voice raw and her throat as dry as a desert.

Concern shown in Nyx's eyes, but he turned to somewhere else, bowing his head to someone else before standing up, leaving Mala alone.

It appeared she was lying down on a rickety cot of some sort, because when Nyx stood up it gave a long creak.

It was Cassian's turn to sit down, and Mala was relieved to find no ulterior motives hidden on his face.

"Hey, um, sorry about that. I tried to get them to listen to me when I said you weren't trying to infiltrate us but they wouldn't listen," he sent a glare over to the side.

An aching headache was pounding in her head, like a giant hammer was being slammed into it again and again. She groaned, hoping it conveyed the meaning that she was entirely out of it. Mala felt like utter shit. What the hell did these crazy fae give her?

Nyx sat down on the cot again, a glass of liquid in his hands. He held it out for her, and the mistrust in Mala's eyes must have been obvious enough because he made it clear that, "No, it's not poison, but it'll sooth your headache," how he knew she had a headache was beyond her mental capacity for today to try and figure out.

He raised it to her lips and she parted them as the cold fluid ran down her throat. She swallowed multiple mouthfuls of it before he took the empty glass away, eyebrows raised in surprise.

With her strength ebbed away at the moment, she only had enough strength to turn over to her side, away from the two males at her side. Including the other fae in the room whom she had no desire to meet, with their stares burning onto her. She just wanted to not feel so ill and to be alone.

Nyx, with mind-reading quickness it seemed like, guessed her desires almost immediately, and cleared everyone out of the room.

A deep sleep that would gain her good health back beckoned her and she welcomed it willingly, knowing that her full powers would return in the morning and she'd then be better suited for dealing with this shit.

~tev <3