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“Nowhere?” She frowned. “I thought you were saying they looked different. I thought…”
When she didn’t say anything for a bit, I asked, “Thought what?”
She shook her head. “Nothing. What are you talking about, though?”
“Your eyeballs are gone.”
The skin around her empty sockets tightened, and her brows pulled in, but there wasn’t anything where her eyeballs should be. How did she not know?
“I see you just fine.”
I shook my head. I couldn’t get stuck on a tangent. If dream Rae didn’t have eyeballs, then she didn’t. I needed to get information before our connection was severed.
“I wanna come home,” she whispered, the sadness in her voice pulling me out of my hyperfixation on her eyes.
“Can you tell me anything about where you are besides a basement?”
She glanced around as if examining our surroundings, but it felt like she wasn’t seeing the forest. “There was a fish smell when we were coming down here. You didn’t smell it?”
“Fish? We? How would I?”
“Yeah, Rinlora and me. And when you came down… or did you just appear here in the room?”
“Okay. Wait a sec. Where do you think we are?”
“The basement.” Her head tilted to the side, and I knew if she had eyeballs, she’d be giving me a look like I had a few screws missing.
“We’re in Feranzis,” I whispered.
Her shoulders pulled up to her ears, and she shifted toward me. “No, we’re not.”
“I think that’s why I can’t see your eyes. You’re seeing what you want to see. I’m seeing a nightmare. I’m trapped in the forest with your body.”
“What the hell? Why?”
“I don’t know. I don’t understand any of it. Maybe your mind is protecting you from here?”
“Yeah, but why would it put you there if it’s my dream?”
I shrugged. “Maybe I’m living the nightmare for you?” I tried to smile, but it felt forced, and I hated faking it around her, so I stopped. She didn’t like liars anyway.
“Before I forget, what did you mean about the fish smell? What happened before you went to the basement with Rinlora? Why was she with you? Did she kidnap you?”
Her hands grasped mine, holding them in her lap. “Slow down. I’ll tell you what I know.”
By the time she finished detailing everything from running off to the mall with Kavina to Rinlora claiming Rae needed to return to the palace, only to take her somewhere that sounded a lot like the Jinphni District during the day, I was ready to jump out of the dream and get Ezra to order the guard to tear the district apart to find Rae—starting with the markets on the south end. A large fish market there sold medicines, potions, and food. The whole area reeked.
The more she told me about her condition, the worse I felt. She’d been going through what Ash experienced—maybe worse.
I pulled her into my lap and cradled her against me.
“I’m tired, Zeke.”
I brushed my lips over the top of her head. “Just hold on a little longer. We’ll find you.”
“Rinlora said she’d talk to Ezra, but I don’t know if she’ll do the right thing. I mean, it’s her sister.”
“Wait. What about Roandra?”
