Page 32 of Where Darkness Falls

I push my way through some brush, looking for a place to hide.

Someone grabs my hand, jerking me around to face them.

It’s the cloaked woman with lavender eyes.

“Awaken.”

I bolt upright,sweat glistening against my brow. I place my hand on my chest, taking several deep breaths.

In… two… three.

Out… two… three.

In… two… three.

Out… two… three.

I repeat the words Amelia taught me.

“It’s just a dream and nothing more.”

Over and over again.

It can’t hurt me.

This is the second time that I’ve encountered the same woman with lavender eyes in my nightmare. There’s something about her presence that rattles me. The dream itself possesses its own horrors: a burning house, heart-wrenching screams, someone telling me to run, being pursued through the woods only to be found once I am hidden. Always the same sequence of events… until recently.

I look out of the window adjacent to my bed. By the light shade of gray in the sky, I would say it’s about mid-morning. The world beyond is cast in a misty haze, silhouetting Aurelius.

Strange.

Normally, even in the daylight, the mist shrouds the village, leaving it opaque. Right now, it is almost translucent as the tops of roofs peek out from behind it.

When the mist rises, and this land is drenched in blood…

I run my fingers through my hair, shaking the memory.

No, it is just another caliginous day in Aurelius.

I amhome.

I amsafe.

I take a deep breath.

“Maeva?” Amelia calls from the doorway.

I’m taken aback as I turn toward where she stands with a tray in her hands. Her eyes are apprehensive as she takes in my current state.

“Are you well, Darling Flower?” she asks kindly, though her posture is rigid.

“Of course,” I reply, forcing a smile. “It was just a nightmare again.”

“I see you do not appear to be in quite as bad a shape as Cara,” she assesses, tilting her head. “Her under eyes are different shades of blue and purple. She’s refusing to even sit up in bed.”

I cringe at her words.

There are very few times I’ve ever seen Amelia sound this concerned. The last time being when the twins thought it was a good idea to jump from the roof with bed sheets attached to their limbs as makeshift wings. Needless to say, Cillian landed a broken leg. Aidan somehow managed to glide into the one tree near the house, bed sheets wrapping around a branch, leaving him suspended upside down. She was quite distressed, to say the least.