Kaelen's POV
I don’t remember choosing to lie down. There is only the moment my body finally gives in, exhaustion pulling me under with the quiet inevitability of a tide that has been rising for days. The mattress accepts my weight, the ceiling blurs, and the room slips away as if it was never solid to begin with. Sleep takes me fast, without mercy, without warning.
---
The dream does not creep in. It arrives whole.
There is no fog, no distortion, no soft edges. Everything is sharp enough to cut.
I am standing in a clearing flooded with moonlight so pale it borders on white, the kind of light that bleaches color from the world. The trees form a loose circle around me, their branches bending inward like bowed heads, leaves barely stirring. The air is cool and still, heavy with the scen
