Chapter 283. He’s Not the One

*Maddy*

I wake with a start and sit up straight, blinking into blue darkness. Water drips above my head from a stone ceiling, and all around me are furs and blankets, some of them dark and damp with blood. Where am I? How did I get here?

Light burns my eyes, and the acrid scent of a match meeting flame makes my nose crinkle. I press my eyes shut, wincing against a sudden blast of dry heat.

“Open your eyes, darling,” says a soothing, crackling female voice.

I blink rapidly to clear the stinging tears blurring my vision and a stooped, ancient woman comes into view on the other side of a small warming fire that illuminates the cave around us.

Mystica looks up at me with a motherly smile, then back down at the fire she’s tending.

I draw my knees to my chest and hug them, chills running up and down my spine.

“To answer your questions,” she says, “you’re in a cave at the base of the mountains. And you hit your head quite badly trying to run from K