Makayla’s hands shot out and caught me before I crumpled onto the floor.

“Something is definitely wrong,” she said.

“I… I just need some air.”

“All right, come on.”

I let her support me as we walked through the archway.

Blue light streamed in through holes in the hallway ceiling, joining in the glowing moss on the floor to illuminate the passage. Strings of moss formed curtains over doorways.

Along the way, we passed another elf maiden with golden hair and aquamarine eyes, wearing the same collection of strings, in black.

“Are you coming to prayers? Oh!” Her expression contorted in concern. “Is Alyna all right?”

Unsure. Equally unsure about praying in these strings that passed for clothes around here. Maybe if church was like this back home, with beautiful beings prancing about, celebrating love in all its forms, I wouldn’t have objected to it.

“Alyna just needs some air.” Makayla patted the woman’s shoulder as we passed.

“That epic?” The knowing look she flashed suggested Makayla and Alyan’s relationship was no secret, and not the least bit scandalous.

Heat rose to my checks.

Makayla giggled. “Tell Dalya to lead prayers.”

Forming a halo over her head, the woman continued on her way.

It was easy to loose track of the turns until we came to another round chamber. A pair of narrow circular stairs criss-crossing each other along the walls like DNA.

I looked up. Though not a great judge of distances, I would’ve guessed the it to rise five stories high. Moss covered the walls, lighting up the tower, all the way to a dome. Unlike in the first wider chamber, this ceiling didn’t have a giant hole in it; yet light spilled in from somewhere along the sides.

“I did say something about needing air,” I said. “I’ll need a lot more by the time we reach the top.”

“Really?” She laughed. “You always beat me in a race up the steps, effortlessly.”

To think, this body could run up those steps, whereas back home, I’d probably faint by the third story.

Though with no bannister and my legs so wobbly, I’d likely tumble to my death if I tried to negotiating them now. I gave her my best pleading look, but given how out of touch I was with this body, I probably looked like half my face had been stung by a bee.

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She flashed me a mischievous smile and darted to one of the stairs.

With no other recourse, I staggered to the opposite side.

Thankfully, no moss grew on the steps. Still, by the tenth step, I was on my hands and knees, cursing her under my breath. By the twenty-seventh step, ten feet off the ground, I believed in God again.

Because I was praying that I wouldn’t slip over the edge and fall. I hazarded a glance over the side, then pressed myself back against the wall. I scanned the opposite stairwell, only to find Makayla halfway up.

She must’ve felt my eyes on her, because she stopped and looked down. “Are you all right?”

No.

Maybe? Interestingly, the feeling of fear that usually coursed through me at heights didn’t hit me now.

Emboldened, I rose to my feet and bolted up the—

My foot caught on my ribbony excuse for a dress, and I went over the edge with a scream.

Up above, Makayla let out a gasp, then sang out some words.

Her musical notes seemed to vibrate in my gut. If I didn’t know any better, the way I lurched to a stop a few inches above the ground, arms and legs splayed out, the tune might’ve been the theme to Mission Impossible. What the movie doesn’t show is that when Tom Cruise’s freefall comes to a sudden stop, even without splattering all over the floor, it still hurts.

“Are you all right?” she called, voice echoing in the tower.

How many times had she asked me that tonight? Too bad she didn’t have an iPhone to repeat the question.

“Yes,” I said, despite the fact I’d defied the laws of physics like this before.

“You really aren’t yourself, are you?”

“No,” and not the way she thought.

My heart, not yet recovered from the fall, lurched again as an unseen force lifted me higher and higher, faster and faster. I looked up to see her climbing the steps, gaze and outstretched hand locked on me.

This must be how the boulders felt when Rey levitated them at the end of The Last Jedi. Or, for you members of the Fandom Menace, how the Luke’s X-wing felt when Yoda lifted it out of the swamp.

Though neither Rey nor Yoda shared the same concerned expression with which Makayla looked at me now. I don’t think anyone ever looked at me that way, and if my heart had nearly stopped twice in the last thirty seconds, it now pattered faster than ever.

Like a cobra ensorcelled by a snake charmer, I couldn’t break my gaze as she continued up the steps, bringing me along as she did.

The top was ringed with a platform, which like the steps, had no safety rail. There were more OSHA violations than an on the Death Star, enough to put the convent out of business with legal expenses had they been incorporated in the US.

With a broad smile, she stretched her arms out, took my hands, and pulled me onto solid ground.

My feet found purchase for only a split second before I stumbled into her embrace, my clumsiness met with a giggle.

How often had I found myself in her arms today?

“Oh, my sweet,” she said, nuzzling my neck. “We will never ever ever ever trifle with your fetish, ever ever again.”

Electricity shot up my spine. I tried to pull back, but oh how warm and right this felt!

Right? What was I thinking? This was Alyna’s body, and while it might respond to Makayla’s touch, something didn’t sit right in my stomach.

Trying to stiffly my guilt, I blew her silky silver hair out of my face and looked over her shoulder.

The top of tower was yet another dome supported by columns in the form of Kavala, in various seductive poses wrapped around her pole. Several of the stances looked like the ones from the formations the women held when fending off the Cultivator’s attack.

The air up here felt cool and heavy in my lungs, with a light breeze that drifted in between the columns. Very little of the moss grew here, and the illumination came from the lightening sky.

I looked past the columns.

And gasped.

I pushed out of her arms and went over to the ballustrade.