I want to run away, but my feet carry me forward, toward her.
“Don’t fight. You have to see. You must see!”
My blood burns, limbs screaming in protest even as I tell them that yes. Yes, I need to know. I need to see.
The woman vanishes, only to reappear inside the pavilion. I don’t want to go inside the gloomy interior. Don’t want to see what lurks in the dark, but I follow anyway, slipping past the ivy veil draped over the stone structure.
“Find me…” She points at the ground, at the planks, once white but now scuffed and speckled with moss. “Find…me…” The hollow sadness in her tone stokes a fire to life inside me.
I have to find her.
I drop to my knees and run my hands over the wood that fits so neatly together. “There’s nothing here. Nothing?—”
The rook lands on the balcony, wings flapping in agitation. “Look and you will see.”
But Iamlooking. I… Oh… Silver lines flicker to life across the wood to form a symbol that’s arcane but unknown to me, and then another line blooms, moving across the wood to create a square. A seam…there’s a seam cut into the wood, so slender anyone would miss it if not searching for it. Heart pounding, I trace it with my fingers until I come to a small gap. Too small to pry open with a finger. I push my nail into it and feel something click.
A soft whirr sounds, and the hatch slips down, then shifts sideways, revealing a space beneath occupied by a bundle of thick cloth.
A blanket?
I look up at the gray figure of the girl who my gut tells me is Selina, then down at the large bundle wrapped in the blanket.
“Find me…” A tear rolls down her cheek, and my chest aches.
“Selina?”
She nods. “Find me.”
Oh Trinity. I take a breath, steeling myself before reaching into the hole to peel back the blanket. A face stares up at me, perfectly preserved and serene, as if only sleeping. “Oh… Oh, Selina…” There’s something poking out from the blanket, pressed to her chest. I pull the fabric aside, revealing a crystalline gem.
“Find me,” Selina says again, urgent now. Pushing me to act.
“I have, I… This isyou, isn’t it? This dream. It’s you. You’re showing me where to find you. I’ve got to wake up and see, so?—”
“Find me now!” She jabs a finger at the gem.
I reach for it, allowing her to guide me to take it. To remove it. But the gem seems to resist, fighting me as I tug, until finally, with a fizz and crackle, it comes free.
The body in the hole snaps open its eyes and screams.
I fall back, dropping the crystal. It shatters, and a shockwave of energy blasts me in the face, lifting my hair and stealing my breath. The stench of death fills my nose.
“Now you see…”
The rook flies at my face, and I fall back, head slamming against the pavilion floor.
“Anamaya? Can you hear me? Anamaya?”
Vitra appeared above me, his face a tight, unreadable mask. “Get up.” He slips a hand under my shoulders, helping me sit up.
Oh Trinity. I remember. I remember it all. “I was dreaming. I saw her. I saw her body.”
“I see it too,” Vitra said, shifting slightly to allow me a view of my surroundings.
I was in the pavilion. Truly here, and the hole was here too. I scrambled toward it, gagging as the stench of decomposition hit me.
“Who is it?” Vitra asks. “Who’s the girl?”
