Bile climbs up my throat and I bend in half, clutching my middle as I expel a stream of vomit. My stomach cramps and I drop to my knees before its entire contents find their way to the forest floor. Nadir crouches next to me, holding back my hair as I continue to retch.

When I think I’m done, I sob out a laugh.

“What is funny right now?” he asks.

“Remember when you held my hair back in The Aurora?” I ask, thinking of the night I got so drunk, I passed out on his bathroom floor.

“Of course I remember,” he says fondly. “It felt like the first time you ever really needed me.”

I look up at his serious expression. “I did need you.”

“I needed you too. You have no idea how much.” He tugs away a piece of hair pasted to my cheek.

“You told me I smelled.”

He laughs. “You did a little, but I didn’t mind.”

I wipe my chin with the back of my trembling hand, tears forming in my eyes. He sweeps one away with the tip of his thumb, the corner of his mouth curling up softly. “I remember everything, Lor.”

“Thank you for not saying I told you so,” I answer. “About the berries.”

Nadir wraps an arm around my neck and draws me in close, pressing his lips to my temple.

“Thank you for trying, Lightning Bug.”

“You aren’t going to tell me I’m an idiot?” I grumble as he helps me stand. I sway on my feet, lightheaded. That was so stupid. Now I’ve coughed up the little sustenance I had in my stomach.

“I’d never tell you that,” he says with a wink. “I love your . . . impulsiveness.”

I laugh in spite of myself.

“But how about no more experiments with the weird berries and mushrooms?”

I look mournfully around us—everything looks so bright and luscious, and surely something here is edible? But Nadir is right, and Herric has done this on purpose.

“Fine,” I concede, and we continue picking our way through the quiet forest as the sun climbs before clouds start to roll in. I pray that doesn’t mean rain. The only thing worse than being tired, hungry, and stuck inside this fucking bubble would be to be tired, hungry, stuck inside this fucking bubble, and wet.

I shake my head, admonishing myself for wallowing in worst-case scenarios, even in my imagination, because fate will find a way to prove me right.

As we keep walking, mist crawls along the ground while the grass gives way to rocky terrain. “I don’t like this,” I say. “It’s too quiet.”

“I agree,” Nadir says. “Just go slowly.”

I nod as my hand tightens around his while the fog thickens around us. We continue tripping blindly over scrub and wildflowers, and I’ve lost every sense of the direction we were going.

Where is the mountain? I ask.