38: What Are You?

She stirred with a soft groan, her lashes fluttering as the weight of sleep clung to her like wet clothes. Her head throbbed faintly, and her limbs felt heavy as though she was being held captive.

It took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the dim glow around her.

She was in a cave.

Its walls pulsed with flickering orange light, cast by ten small wooden sticks each one standing upright, half-burnt and still alight with silent flames. They had been planted in a perfect circle around her.

Danika's breath hitched.

The air around her was thick and laced with the scent of burning sage and myrrh. A smell she felt she had encountered once before grounding her in an eerie familiarity of witchcraft.

Her brows knit together in confusion.

How did she get here?

The last thing she remembered was following Nandi's instructions to venture toward the border where the guards on patrol would show her the way to the deity's cave.