That night, sleep came to Evanna like a tide—slow, inescapable, and carrying her far from the stone walls of the den. It pulled her into a dreamscape unlike the one that had haunted her with blood and fire. This one, this dream, was tender.
She stood barefoot in a sunlit glade. The grass was wild and soft beneath her feet, dew glittering like gemstones. A breeze stirred the trees above, birds chirped in song, and nearby a brook bubbled with life. And there he was—Orren. Not the broken man she’d seen before, not the cursed warrior doomed to relive tragedy, but a man full of joy. Love radiated from him in every glance, every touch.
Lorelei, one her past selves, smiled at him with eyes that sparkled like morning frost kissed by sunlight. She—Evanna—watched through Lorelei’s eyes as Orren pu
