The dream feels like drowning in light.
Not water—light. Silver and molten, alive. It rushes through caverns beneath my feet, through stone and root, pulsing with a rhythm too steady to be coincidence. Every beat echoes in my chest like a second heart. I reach toward it and see my fingers glowing from the inside, veins shining gold through skin.
Something whispers my name.
Not in English. Not in any language I've ever heard. It’s older, heavier—half vibration, half thought.
Artemis Credence. The river remembers you.
The sound shreds me. The light surges upward, devouring the dark. My body burns; my mind fractures; the current pulls me down—
I wake with a scream lodged behind my teeth.
The room’s still dark. Cold air presses against my damp skin. My heartbeat won’t slow. My palms sti
