The easy banter evaporated. Lena straightened, her playful expression replaced by concern.
“What kind of dreams?” Emma asked.
Kate’s hands tightened around her mug. “Storm imagery. Dark water moving wrongly. Rain going up. The air pressing down. Something…” She paused, searching for words. “Something shifting beneath the island.”
Emma felt a small chill trace down her spine. “Beneath?”
“Yeah. And wind.” Kate’s voice went softer. “Howling and building, circling, like a tornado but not. Voices, but the words are indecipherable. And there’s this feeling like the island is… waiting. Like it’s alive.”
She hesitated for a moment. “It feels like a warning.”
Lena stayed silent, eyes locked on Kate with unusual intensity.
“Warning about what?” Emma asked.
Kate’s eyes held hers through the screen. “I don’t know, but in the dreams, the wind keeps rising, and Iknowthat something wicked is coming with it.”
The words settled over the call like a shadow. Emma wanted to dismiss it, to explain it away with logic and reason. Kate was sensitive, intuitive—dreams were simply her mind processing information differently.
“The hurricane?” Emma asked.
Kate thought for a moment, rolling that over in her mind. “No, that’s not it. Or not all of it.”
“How long have you been having them?” Lena's voice conveyed her worry.
“Since I was there last month.” Kate set down her mug. “They started occasionally. Now, they’re getting clearer and more frequent.”
They sat in silence, the easy comfort of earlier replaced by something heavier.
Lena finally broke the tension with characteristic directness. “So we’re saying the island might be haunted, cursed, or generally suspicious, and Emma’s caught the attention of the most dangerous man we’ll probably ever know. Cool. Normal Thursday.”
Despite everything, Emma felt a laugh bubble up. “When you put it that way…”
“I’m here for chaos,” Lena said. “It’s my brand.”
Kate smiled, but her eyes still shone with worry. “Just… be careful, Emma. Whatever’s coming, I don’t think it’s going to wait much longer.”
They talked for a few more minutes, steering toward safer topics—Lena’s latest battle with the Ivory Sands event coordinator, Kate’s progress on her current manuscript. But theearlier warmth didn’t quite return, unease hanging over them like storm clouds on a clear day.
After the call ended, Emma stared at the darkened screen, Kate’s warning on loop in her mind.
Outside, the evening breeze rustled through the palms, making them hiss and whisper. She shook the thought away and stood, gathering her files. Storms were weather. Dreams were just the mind processing stress. The wind was just the wind.
Nothing more.
But as she switched off her office light and headed for the door, Emma couldn’t quite shake the sense that Kate was right.
Something was coming.
Chapter 6
Executive Meeting
The executive conferenceroom occupied the southwest corner of the administrative floor, with floor-to-ceiling windows facing the open ocean. On clear days, the view stretched unbroken to the horizon. Today, a gray haze blurred the line between sea and sky, surrounding the room in an eerie light. Palms bent in the wind, sending shadows dancing across the walls.
Emma arrived five minutes early, tablet tucked under one arm, coffee in hand, and claimed a seat midway down. Executive meetings at Ivory Tower started on time, no matter who was missing. She appreciated it. Late meetings were a terrible waste of everyone’s time.
The room was already half-full.
