I can’t seem to escape it.
Can’t escape the dark hooded being that’s coming for me.
Bearing down on me.
Claiming me.
Ending me …
I bolt upright, a horrifying scream piercing my sleep. Not realizing until Alrik bolts upright beside me and pul s me tightly to his chest that the sound came from me.
“Adelina! My darling, my sweet, are you okay? What has happened? Was someone here? Speak to me, please!” His hands cup my cheeks, making me face him as he stares into my wide, frightened eyes.
“I—” I blink rapidly, taking a moment to pul away, to gaze around the room, as I fight to get my bearings, to remind myself of where I am, who I am, but stil haunted by the horrible visions I saw, as though the dream has continued.
Alrik leaps from our bed, reaches for the torch and shines it on every corner of the room. Final y assured that no one else has joined us, he returns to my side and says, “My sweet Adelina, relax. It was only a dream.”
He murmurs a stream of sweet words in my ear—promises, declarations of love, a steadfast assurance that it doesn’t mean anything
—that I’m perfectly safe—that I wil not be harmed in any way.
But I know better.
Know there is no such thing as just a dream.
My dreams are not the kind other people have.
My dreams have an uncanny way of coming true.
Prophetic my mother cal s them. Warning me from a young age, when I first started having them, to never speak of them again—to do my best to block them out, lest anyone find out. It will wreck your life, she’d said. That sort of thing is deeply frowned upon.
But tonight, I’ve no choice but to tel Alrik, to warn him of the terrible thing yet to come. I’ve had this dream before, many times since I was a girl. Though this is the first time I’ve come to realize what it means.
That the time has now come.
From the warm, safe shelter of his arms, I al ow my eyes to sadly roam his face, my voice lo
w, nearly a whisper, as I say, “We wil never be married.” I look at him, making sure he understands that my softened tone should not belie the intensity of my words. “I won’t make it to the ceremony.”
Alrik balks, shakes his head, searches for a way to comfort me. “That’s preposterous!” he says. “It was merely a nightmare, nothing more. It means nothing, absolutely nothing—or at least nothing more than a perfectly normal display of pre-marriage jitters. Our lives are about to change in a very big way—we are about to embark on the life of our dreams. And while I know you’re excited, I suspect you’re also a tiny bit frightened as wel , and this is how that sort of fear often chooses to manifest itself. But my darling, my sweet Adelina, please know that you have nothing to worry about. I won’t let anything bad happen to you. Not now, not ever. Do you hear? You wil always be safe with me.”
I nod. Swal ow hard. Wanting more than anything to believe him, for his words to be true.
But deep down inside I know different.
He’s wrong.
Dead wrong.
He didn’t see what I saw.
Doesn’t know what I know.
Didn’t feel the cold hand of death as it grabbed hold of my flesh and refused to let go.
“Kiss me,” I say, seeing the way his face softens, falsely believing it’s over.
“Kiss me and make me forget. Make it go away,” I urge, knowing this is it, my one and only chance to experience our love in its absolute, truest, deepest form. If I can’t convince him now, wel , then it’s a love I’l never know.