Ariane:
The dark took me gently.
Wrapped in the ache of Seris’s touch, in the hum still echoing through my bones, I slipped into sleep like falling into velvet. His warmth lingered in the sheets, in the curve of my spine, and I let myself sink. For once, no memories were chasing me. No echoes of the past or future could be found.
Only peace.
Until that peaceful bliss cracked wide like an open mawl.
A wind stirred, cold and unnatural, sweeping through the dream, peeling away the warmth I had allowed myself to become cocooned in. I opened my eyes to a place that did not belong to the living, a place where the past and present collided within my mind.
The stars above me were wrong—too close, too quiet. They pulsed in time with something ancient beneath my feet, and the sky was split wit
