Page 80 of Sent To A Fantasy World and Now All the Men Want Me 7

Black cardamom wafted around me before Rowan appeared on my other side, kneeling down on the floor and resting his elbows on the cot. Lake settled beside him, while Briar and Callum came to stand beside Maddox. Warm spice. Magnolia blossoms. Peaches and vanilla bean. The scents calmed me even further.

Though faint, I could’ve sworn I caught another scent too. Something woodsy with traces of smoke. I smiled, and tears sprang to my eyes.

Guess the demon lord hadn’t stayed away after all. He was keeping to the shadows, out of sight but unable to mask his presence completely.

“Here you are,” Phantasia said, stepping between Rowan and Lake to hand me a vial filled with green liquid. “And before you ask, yes, it will taste of flowers. But also of fruit. It should be quite pleasant.”

“I’ll be the judge of that,” I mumbled, accepting the vial. “Down the hatch, I guess.”

After taking a steadying breath, I drank the elixir and rested my head back on the pillow. Rowan reached over and smoothed his thumb over my bottom lip. I smiled at him, though it felt strange on my lips. Like my muscles didn’t want to work.

“Close your eyes, love.” Briar placed his hand on my leg. “It should take effect soon.”

I did as he instructed and took more deep breaths, trying to keep my heart rate calm and steady. Freaking out wouldn’t do me any good. A relaxed state was best for whatever I was about to face.

But as seconds passed by, nothing happened. The heaviness in my muscles eased too.

“I’m not feeling anything,” I said before opening my eyes. Everyone watched me with scrunched brows, various levels of concern on their faces. None of them spoke. I waited another beat or two before adding, “How long is it supposed to take?”

Still, no one answered me. They just stared. I stared right back at them, confused. A bit unsettled too. It didn’t look like they were blinking. Or even breathing.

“Hello?” I sat up on the cot, the unsettled feeling stirring more in my gut when they didn’t react to my sudden movement.

That’s when I noticed someone behind me.

A shriek tore through my throat before I tumbled out of the cot and into the floor, my heart thundering against my ribs like a war drum. My men didn’t make a move. For some reason, they were in a frozen state.

Shocked and with my anxiety going haywire, I looked at the person who’d been behind me in the cot. A boy with blond hair and faint freckles dusting his cheeks. One whose hand was clasped in my captain’s.

“What in the Twilight Zone hell is this?” I pushed to my feet, legs trembling as I studied the seemingly asleep person.

It was me.

But how? I glanced down at my body and patted myself, panic growing. Had I died and become a ghost?

Cheep.

My gaze darted to the doorway of the clinic. “Pumpkin?”

The orange critter wiggled his butt in a greeting. Then he ran from the room, leaving me behind.

“Wait!” I took off after him. But the moment I reached the corridor and passed through it, the scene around me changed.

I wasn’t in the castle anymore.

Instead, I stood outside a quaint little cottage.

Ivy climbed up one side of the home, and purple and white blossoms sprouted from flower beds lined with smooth stones. The sun hung low in the sky, casting a dark golden hue on the cottage and backdrop of rolling hills. A rustle of leaves joined the chorus of frogs croaking from a nearby pond, and the smell of wet soil and pine filled the air.

What the hell was happening? Was I having an out-of-body experience? Astro projecting? Phantasia said the elixir would send me on a path of enlightenment but said nothing about running around like a freaking ghost and zapping from one location to another.

The cottage seemed somewhat familiar, like I’d seen it before, but I couldn’t place it.

Insects hummed in the undergrowth as I stepped toward the cottage, and fireflies blinked in and out, floating through the early summer evening. No mistaking the season. The warm, humid air that stuck to my skin was all too telling.

“Eli?” a woman’s voice came from inside. Something about it struck the center of my chest and stopped me cold. “Where have you gone?”

A deep chuckle sounded from the side of the cottage.