There was something wrong with me.
Deeply, thoroughly, embarrassingly wrong.
I wasn't sick my skin was still pale and cold, my senses razor-sharp, my magic steady as stone. But my thoughts had become… unhinged.
Untrustworthy.
Since the dream.
It hadn't felt like a dream, not in the ordinary way. Dreams were fleeting, stitched from chaos and mist. This had felt real. Too real. The weight of Elyzara's hand, the warmth of her voice as she whispered something ridiculous like "baby girl" into my very soul. Her lips soft, lingering, inevitable.
I'd woken up breathless.
And now?
Now I couldn't look at her without feeling like the world had folded in on itself.
She was laughing across the courtyard. Laughing. Just… being loud and annoying and radiant in that absurd way of hers, sitting on the grass with Riven and Aria, all three of them surrounded by crumbs from whatever breakfast tragedy they'd stolen from the dining hall.
