THE LOST PRINCESS OF THE WOLVES.

CHAPTER 6

ARIA POV

"What happened, Aria?" Hanna said, looking worried.

I couldn't speak yet, couldn't get the words out, my throat was too tight, and my heart was still trying to break through my ribs.

"You were screaming," she said, "like actually screaming. I've been trying to wake you up for like five minutes."

"I'm fine," I managed.

"You're not fine, you're shaking."

I looked down at my hands, she was right, they were shaking so bad I had to press them flat against the mattress to make them stop.

"It was just a dream," I said.

"That wasn't just a dream, Aria, that was. I don't know what that was, but it wasn't normal."

"I'm fine, I promise, just go back to sleep."

"I'm not going back to sleep, tell me what you dreamed about."

"Hanna."

"Aria."

I looked at her and I could see she wasn't going to let this go, she had that look on her face, the one she got when she decided something mattered.

"It was nothing," I said, "just weird stress dreams, probably from the whole Celeste thing today."

"You've been having these dreams for weeks," she said quietly, "Don't think I haven't noticed, you wake up at least twice a week looking exactly like this."

I didn't know what to say to that.

"Talk to me," she said, "please, you're scaring me."

"There's nothing to talk about, it's just dreaming, everyone has weird dreams."

"Not like this they don't, you were saying something in your sleep."

I went very still, "What was I saying?"

"I don't know, it wasn't English, or if it was, I couldn't understand it, it sounded old, like ancient."

"That doesn't make any sense."

"I know," she said, "that's why I'm worried."

I pulled my knees up to my chest and wrapped my arms around them, trying to make myself smaller, trying to feel less like I was coming apart at the seams.

"I don't know what's happening to me," I said, and my voice cracked on it, "I keep seeing things that aren't there, hearing things, dreaming about places I've never been, and I don't know what any of it means."

Hanna moved closer, put her hand on my shoulder, "What kind of things are you seeing?"

"Just, I don't know, flashes of things, a man in the cafeteria who disappeared, a weird reflection in a window, a sky that wasn't the right color, it's like my brain is glitching or something."

"Have you told anyone else about this?"

"Who would I tell? A doctor? Hey doc, I'm seeing things and having weird dreams. Please prescribe me something to make it stop?"

"That's not the worst idea."

"I'm not going to a doctor, Hanna, I'm fine."

"You just said you don't know what's happening to you, that's the opposite of fine."

She was right, and I hated that she was right.

"Maybe I'm just stressed," I said, "new school, new city, Celeste trying to ruin my life, Alexei being, whatever Alexei is being, it's a lot."

"Maybe," Hanna said, but she didn't sound convinced, "or maybe there's something else going on."

"Like what."

"I don't know, but Aria, normal stress doesn't make you scream in your sleep, normal stress doesn't make you speak in languages you don't know."

I didn't have an answer for that.

We sat there in silence for a while, the dorm room quiet around us, just the hum of the heating and the distant sound of someone's music playing three floors down.

"Can I ask you something?" Hanna said eventually.

"Yeah."

"Do you ever feel like something is missing? Like there's a part of you that you can't reach?"

I looked at her, "What do you mean?"

"I don't know how to explain it, it's just, sometimes when I look at you, it's like there's more to you than what I can see, like you're only showing me half of yourself and the other half is locked away somewhere."

"That's a weird thing to say."

"I know, but it's true, you've always been like that, even when we were kids."

"I haven't always been like that."

"You have," she said gently, "you just don't notice it because it's you."

I didn't know what to do with that information.

"Get some sleep," I said, changing the subject, "We have class in the morning."

"Are you going to be okay?"

"I'm fine."

"Aria."

"I'm fine, Hanna, I promise, go to sleep."

She looked at me for a long moment, then sighed and got up, "Okay, but if you need me, wake me up, I don't care what time it is."

"I will."

She went back to her bed and turned off the lamp, the room going dark except for the light from the streetlamp outside filtering through the curtains.

I lay back down, but I didn't close my eyes.

I just stared at the ceiling and tried to make sense of everything that was happening.

The dreams were getting worse, more vivid, more real, like they were trying to tell me something I couldn't quite understand.

And the things I saw when I was awake were getting worse too.

I thought about the man in the cafeteria, the way he'd looked at me like he knew me, like he'd been searching for me.

I thought about my reflection in the window, the way my eyes had been the wrong color for just a second.

I thought about the red sky I'd seen outside the library, the sound of screaming, the feeling of running with something in my arms.

None of it made sense.

None of them connected.

But it felt important, felt like if I could just figure out what it all meant, everything would click into place.

I must have fallen asleep eventually because the next thing I knew, my alarm was going off and sunlight was streaming through the window.

Hanna was already up, getting dressed, looking at me with that worried expression she'd had last night.

"Morning," she said.

"Morning."

"How are you feeling?"

"Tired."

"Did you sleep at all after I went back to bed?"

"A little."

"Aria."

"I'm fine, Hanna, stop worrying about me."

"I'm going to keep worrying about you until you stop acting like everything is normal when it clearly isn't."

I got out of bed and started getting ready for class, trying to ignore the headache that had been sitting behind my eyes since I woke up.

We walked to class together. Hanna was talking about something, but I wasn't really listening, I was too busy thinking about the dream, trying to remember the details before they slipped away completely.

The white wolf, those silver eyes, the voice saying when the time is right, over and over like a mantra.

What did that even mean?

When is the time right for what?

We got to class and I sat down, pulled out my notebook, and tried to focus on what the professor was saying.

But I couldn't concentrate, my mind kept wandering back to the dream, to the things I'd been seeing, to the feeling that something was coming, something I wasn't ready for.

Halfway through the lecture my phone buzzed.

I looked down.

Unknown number.

“Hey it’s Alexei …”