“You’re so hot,” she mumbles into my shoulder.
I nearly choke.
Is this a joke?!
Is she secretly awake, and just trying to torment me? Is this a game to her?
Maybe I should have insisted onnotsharing the bed, because no way in hell am I actually going to get any sleep tonight, exhausted as I am.
Minutes tick by, her heartbeat a steady rhythm in my skull.
Finally, she rolls over again, whimpering in her sleep. And not a good whimper.
A whimper like she’s terrified.
I frown, propping myself up on one arm as I gaze down at her in the soft glow of city lights through the window. Her eyes are squeezed shut, her mouth open slightly as she mumbles more words that make no sense.
Is she…having a nightmare?
You
The void presses down all around you.
Everything is heavy. So heavy. Is this where you die?
But out of the darkness, a low voice echoes.
“It’s just a nightmare,” soothes the voice. “You’re safe, Anzelika.”
A voice that sounds oddly familiar.
Just a nightmare.
But it feels so real. And when you try to open your eyes, you can’t.
You’re frozen in place as a giant, blue, snarling monster materializes. Then, just as you’re about to get eaten alive, you’re suddenly not in the void anymore.
You’re standing on top of a towering skyscraper so tall, the ground might be a thousand miles below. The air is so thin, you can hardly breathe, and with every passing second, the top of the skyscraper gets narrower and narrower beneath your feet.
And the monster is suddenly there, too.
The big blue monster advances on you, towering several times as large as Vincentius was in real life.
You take a teetering step back, stumbling over the strangely only ankle-height railing at the edge of the roof.
For a moment, you float there as if in a cartoon.
Then you begin to plunge.
The sickening feeling of freefall rises in your stomach as you scream.
“Anzelika,” growls Ziros’ voice from everywhere all at once. The world blurs around you as you fall. And then you’re in his arms.
In your bed.
In your apartment.
Your head spins as he holds you against his bare chest, magic sizzling through the air all around you.
