August caught her as she fell, and he almost expected her to be half-gone, a shell of her former self, befitting of a bad trade with the fairies. In a guarded panic he supported her, his sword on the ground, and he moved her hair from her face so he could better see her state of mind. She was definitely weak, but the color had returned to her face and he could feel her heart and her breath. It was a little comfort, at least.

"You had a bad dream," he replied gruffly, and he carefully kept his voice even and his expression firm, though his own heart was still beating furiously. She didn't have to know how close she'd come to disappearing forever into the fairy realm. She didn't have to know what he'd done. He supported her with an arm around her waist, and he draped her arm behind his neck. "You were sleepwalking. Come on, can you walk?"

There was a distinct tingling in his eye, sometimes accompanied by a crackle of energy that felt like it popped and swirled behind his vision -- a vision that was steadily fading. The color of his right eye was swirling and changing subtly, now green now blue and orange-purple, but he had no way of knowing he looked any different. The vision in his right eye was blurring and growing darker, soon to be gone completely. He had thought it would be fine just to lose one eye -- he had another, he could afford it -- but he'd never counted on how terrifying it is to watch the world go dark, to lose something he'd been born with, even if it was only an eye. He had to concentrate on Sam.

August was quiet and rigid, and he walked slowly for her benefit, pointedly ignoring the fairy girl on the rock. With any luck, Sam wouldn't notice.

"You should go back and sleep," he said firmly, if only to distract her. "Not in Raquelle's tent. You'll stay where I can keep an eye on you. All right with that?" He never wanted her to leave his sight again.