Nyx | Carpe Noctem ✓

Chapter 17: The Cauldron

∙ Madis POV ∙

Liquid swept over me when my eyes shot wide open. Is this what dying feels like? Am I dying?

No, I was not dying. I was drowning. Who would drown a dying girl?

The pain in my chest was gone. I pounded, thrusted and thrashed against the wall of whatever kind of thing I was thrown into. Was it a fountain? The fountain behind the poorhouse?

I tried to reach the surface, still pounding on the walls. Why was I pounding on the walls? The walls of what actually?

I swallowed the liquid, but I was not dying—not anymore. Still my stomach cramped at the helplessness I was feeling. There was dread and panic, horror and angst, yet there was also hope and light. I hadn't felt hope in such a long time.

The liquid was so bloody cold. Much colder than snow and winter. In there it was so cold and deep, there was no ground. But suddenly a fire erupted inside of me, a wave of heat flooded my body. It set my body on fire but in the same time also cooled it down. Icy-heat erupted all over my skin and I was burning.

I kept on kicking and wiggling. It was dark. So dark, so deep, so cold.

It felt like I gripped the darkness by its throat, I ripped it apart with my bare hands until I could see the surface. The thing around me roared, crying out. Apperently I had ripped it apart a bit too harsh and not only the darkness that surrounded me. It shook and screamed and roared and now I was sure that it was no regular fountain.

There was a light. A light above me. I opened my mouth again. Not quite sure why, after all I was under water. This time I did not scream. I let the liquid consume me. I consumed it. I roared, liquid filling my lungs. I ripped the darkness further apart. My hands reaching upwards. I could see sunlight. My head shot over water and I gasped for air. Whatever thing I was in did not even give me time to get out, it spit me out. And it roared again.

I was dropped like a wet towel. Dropped on the cool, in snow coated, grass. I gasped, gripping the grass around me tightly before looking upwards. Was this the after world? Was this where you got to when you were dead? It couldn't be, could it?

My eyes burned against the sunlight, I couldn't make oit a single thing.
I heard footsteps approach, pebbles and grass crunching and closed my eyes, the bright sunlight to harsh to keep them open any longer. That was not the afterworld...Maybe I had gone mental?

I had my eyes closed when hands snuck under me and I was lifted up. I grabbed the person tightly by their biceps, my eyes not able to open again. They were sealed shut and I decided to simply accept my fate. 

I was still so cold. The thin nightgown, that was half ripped apart clutched to my wet body. I wiped a hand over my face to push my hair out of it and tried to blink my eyes. I was unsuccessful, the light was too bright for my eyes. My throat bruned with a scream and my legs felt numb, dangling over the person's arm. I leaned closer to said person, taking in their scent.

Pine. Citrus. Sea.

Nyx.

I forced my eyes to open, this time I managed. And then...all of a sudden. It was warm. I was warm. I was placed down on something soft before a blanket was thrown over me. I gasped, when I finally was able to make out my surroundings and look into the faces of—

—all of them.

Nyx. Rhysand. Feyre. Cassian. Nesta. Mor. Azriel. And a small lady with black hair.

I tried to catch my breath, my hand automatically moving to my breast and my heart. There was no pain. No stuttering. A steady heart beat replaced the stuttering. A steady heart beat and steady breathing. I was not dead. I was more alive than ever before.