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I stood alone in the forest, and the silence grew so loud, it was deafening.
The trees looked down on me.
“What?” I demanded.
They were all judging me. I didn’t know how I knew; I just did.
“Don’t you dare!” I screamed. “You don’t know me, you don’t know what my story is! You can’t tell me I made mistakes if you don’t know the full story!”
“Lorraine,” a clear voice came from right in front of me.
I looked up, and Ash stood before me.
“You’re okay,” he said.
“I’m not,” I said. “None of this is okay. I just… I want to go home.”
Ash lifted his hand and touched my shoulder. Warmth radiated from his touch, but there was more to him than just the warmth of a live body. Something else flowed into me when he touched me.
“I told you magic was real,” Cat said.
I spun around to look for her, but there was nothing but darkness.
When I turned back to Ash, he was gone, too.
I jerked up in bed, breathing hard. My breath came in ragged gasps, and my skin was slick with a sheen of sweat.
The cabin was dark. Moonlight fell through the murky glass window in my room, drawing strange shapes on the quilt I lay under.
I looked around and swallowed hard. It had just been a dream—a nightmare. None of it was real, just the panic catching up to me. It had all been so much to take in. Oscar letting those men take me, the escape, meeting Ash, this cabin, my attraction to him… it was just a lot to deal with right now.
“You’re overwhelmed. You’re exhausted. Your mind doesn’t know what to make of it all.” I tried to tell myself everything was okay, but it didn’t work.
I wasn’t sure everything was okay. Right now, after the nightmare, it felt like everything I thought I knew had crumbled around me.
The front door creaked open, and my blood ran cold. Dread settled in my stomach, and I tasted my heart in my throat.
Someone was here for me. Someone had come to get me.
Footsteps came closer and closer to my door. The fear grew stronger, threatening to overthrow me like a tidal wave. My breath caught in my throat, and I couldn’t breathe, completely paralyzed by my fear.
The door to my room swung slowly open, and I thought I might pass out from terror.
“You’re awake,” Ash’s velvety voice said softly.
Swallowing hard, I gasped in relief, trying to compose myself. The fear was still there, and my skin tingled with fright, but I wasn’t in danger.
“I… couldn’t sleep.” I wasn’t going to tell him I had a nightmare.
“Are you okay?” he asked. His eyes glowed like sapphires in the night, and his features seemed ethereal. I blinked a few times, but Ash still looked like an apparition.
“I’m fine,” I said.
He didn’t look like he believed me. I wasn’t okay at all, but I wasn’t going to tell him that. Ash didn’t look like anything scared him, and to tell him about my dream… I couldn’t do it.
“I’m going to make you a cup of tea,” Ash said. “Herbal tea. It will help you relax.”
“Okay,” I said in a strained voice. “Are you staying?”
