The creamy fragrance of moonflowers fills the night air, and a warm breeze blows over my skin as I gaze up at the stars.
Oliver and I stand together on the beach, hand in hand, bathed in starlight amongst a field of radiant flowers - lilies wrought from living fire, blazing golden petals unfurling endlessly into the dark like tiny flaming fireworks.
Some deeper part of me knows that this isn’t real. I’m dreaming right now, but I don’t care. This is real, in its own way. In this moment, I am happy… I am free.
And so I push down the lucid awareness of my dream state, choosing to forget, to believe, to be here… with him.
It’s just Oliver and me here, no one else. The other girls competing for his heart and hand, the groomsmen, even his vile, scheming parents… all gone, extinguished out o
