[Isolde]
I jumped back before he—this thing, whatever it was—could touch me.
The last time something had laid hands on me while I was stuck in a dream state, I’d woken up with finger-shaped bruises imprinted on my arm. Dark pink marks that were still yet to fade. And ever since that encounter, I’d begun seeing and feeling things I wasn’t meant to—ghosts, cold spots, the veil between worlds growing thinner with each passing day.
I wasn’t about to let it happen again.
“Where am I?” I demanded, my voice shaking despite my attempt at firmness. “I don’t want to be here!”
I watched his long, slender fingers linger in mid-air where they’d been reaching for me. They hung there for a moment, pale as bone and impossibly thin before slowly dropping back to his side.
When he spoke, it was in tha
