Lifting my head up, she placed a flask by my lips and urged me to drink some of the contents. I guessed it was water and
hoped it would help my throat so I could ask where we were going.
I felt myself drift in and out of sleep for a while. I could tell by the changes in the sky and by the time that I assumed the
carriage stopped, night had fallen, and I was heaved out of the back and carried somewhere. The mumbles and whispers of
those around me carried on throughout the night and into the next day. Until finally, my eyes opened fully, and I could take in the
scene around me.
“Ornella?”
I didn’t recognise the voice at first until they spoke again, and a lump formed instantly in my throat, when a soft, gentle hand
took mine in theirs.
“Talia?”
My throat no longer burnt as badly as it did, but it still hurt slightly to breathe. A pain continued to poke under my rib cage,
and I wondered how long that would happen.
“Where—where am I?”
What the hell had happened? Had I drifted towards the border perhaps with the current? No, surely that wouldn’t have been
possible. I drowned. I felt my death. I knew it happened. This had to be a dream, was this the afterlife? If it was, why was
Talia here?
Tears began to stream down my cheeks as the thought of her dying held on tightly. Consuming me until she wrapped her
arms around my neck, lifting me slightly off the cot. I could feel her warmth breath, her heartbeat against mine.
“You were brought back to us last night. Oh, how I’ve missed you!” She began to sob as she let go and sat on the edge of
the cot, her mind not too quick to catch up to her mouth as she began telling me everything.
“When you were taken, Mother was frantic. She ordered every soldier, every lord in the kingdom to find you and when they
couldn’t, she turned to that lady who helped Norok. She informed Mother that you were taken by the Shadow King,” she
paused, trying to contain herself as her hands moved around with her words. “I’d never heard of him before. Did he really take
you?”
Before I could get a word in, she carried on.
“Of course, he did. Norok got better as well! Which we were all so pleased about. That makes you just the spare heir,
again.”
She said it so casually, as if it didn’t matter and part of me felt the sting. I would always be second to Norok. All my life
I’d been set aside for the golden boy, and I understood why.
“Anyways, he was out of bed in seconds when he found out what happened to you. He gathered up Uncle Dorian and our