Chapter 188 The Fading Haze

Maya's POV The world was slowly reassembling itself, piece by agonising piece. For days, perhaps weeks, the edges of my reality had been blurred, my thoughts thick with the syrupy residue of the sedatives. Each breath was a shallow effort, each blink an attempt to clear the fog. My body, though weak, was finally starting to rebel against the enforced stupor. The cloying scent of herbs and stale air in the healer's hut was slowly giving way to the faint, sharper tang of woodsmoke and damp earth that permeated the compound. Jackson. The name was a constant, dull throb behind my eyes, a silent scream trapped in my throat. Every time I surfaced from the drugged slumber, his face was the first thing I saw in my mind's eye – his bright, inquisitive gaze, the smattering of freckles across his nose. And every time, the wave of grief and terror threatened to pull me back under. They kept telling me he was being searched for, that every warrior was out, but the void in my heart remained. I shift