Chapter 27
That night, sleep didn’t come easily.
Even though my body screamed with exhaustion, my mind refused to rest. It kept circling back to that man. The way he said my name. The eerie way he had known who I was before I even realized he existed. The memory of his voice sent shivers down my spine, and no matter how tightly I closed my eyes, I couldn’t block it out.
Eventually, the painkillers dulled the throb in my limbs, and the comfort of the warm bed lulled me into a restless and uneasy sleep.
And that’s when the dream came.
It started in silence.
I stood alone in the center of a moonlit clearing. The forest stretched out around me like a slumbering giant. The tall trees were swaying gently in the wind. The moon hung high above. It was full and glowing; a pale silver disc that illuminated everything in a soft light. Beneath it, the world looked unreal. Beautiful, but strange. Like a memory dipped in starlight.
The grass brushed against my bare ankles. A field of white lilies bloomed just beyond the treeline. Their petals were glowing faintly in the dark. They swayed in unison with the breeze, as if whispering secrets to
the night.
It should have been peaceful.
But something about the stillness made my skin crawl.
Then came the shouting.
A man’s voice, harsh and ragged, shattered the quiet. “Althea!”
The name echoed through the trees like thunder. It was full of rage… and something worse. Obsession.
I turned toward the sound, my heart thudding painfully in my chest.
From the edge of the clearing, a woman burst through the trees. She was running…no…fleeing….with every ounce of strength she had left. Her long brown hair was wild, tangled by the wind and branches. Her clothes were torn. They were hanging off her slender frame in blood-soaked shreds. She was pale and
hurt.
And she was holding something to her chest.
A baby.
I stopped breathing.
The woman clutched the child tightly against her, shielding it as she stumbled forward. Her eyes darted
around wildly, desperate for a place to hide. But she didn’t look back. Not once. She ran like a mother who knew the cost of slowing down.
My feet moved on their own, following her as if I were tethered to her pain.
Behind her, shadows moved. Dark figures tore through the forest. There were five, maybe six of them. Their leader stood out immediately. He was taller and broader. I could see it in the way he moved that he was a predator. His hair was black as ink, and his eyes… they glowed faintly, like dying embers. They were
cold and cruel.
“There’s no need to run, Althea,” he called. “You know how this ends. I will catch you.”
My blood went cold. He wasn’t chasing her because he was angry. He was hunting her because he owned
her.
That was the tone in his voice….like she was a possession. Like the baby she carried was something
stolen from him.
But still… she ran.
She veered off the main path, ducking under a low-hanging branch. I followed silently. I was invisible in the dream. I watched as she tore a strip of her cloak, soaked in blood, and tossed it down another trail. It was
a trick. She had created a false trail.
The men chasing her followed the decoy scent, their footsteps crashing away into the trees.
Althea pressed forward, her breaths shallow and shaky. The baby stirred and let out a soft and confused
whimper. She rocked it gently and whispered something too quiet for me to hear.
She emerged into a smaller clearing. It was a hidden pocket of forest. She collided with a man. He was tall and strong, with armor and the presence of a warrior. Startled, he caught her before she could fall.
“What…what happened? Are you….hurt…?”
“There’s no time,” she gasped while clutching his sleeve. Her face was pale and smeared with dirt and
blood. “Please… take her.”
The man blinked. He was confused. “What?”
Althea held out the baby with trembling arms. “Take her. Hide her. He must never find her.”
The warrior hesitated. He glanced between Althea and the child. “Who’s after you? What’s going on?”
“There’s no time,” she whispered again, tears slipping down her cheeks. “She’s more important than you know. More powerful than he could ever be. She is light. Hope. Please… protect her. My little moon…”
That last phrase….my little moon….sent a jolt through me.
The warrior finally took the child. He was hesitant… but gentle. His arms closed around the tiny bundle instinctively, as though he already knew how precious she was.
Althea leaned forward and pressed a kiss to the baby’s forehead, her tears falling freely now. “I love you. I love you more than life.”
Then she turned without looking back and ran into the darkness.
I knew, deep in my bones, that she wasn’t coming back.
She had given her child to a stranger and sacrificed herself to draw the monsters away.
The dream began to blur. The edges of the forest turned hazy. The lilies in the distance began to wilt, their white petals turning brown. The moon dimmed as if it was mourning.
And then there was darkness.
I woke up with a gasp, my sheets tangled around me and my chest heaving like I had been the one running for my life. My room was dimly lit by moonlight filtering through the window, but I felt like I was still in the forest. Still watching Althea disappear into the shadows.
I sat up and pressed a hand to my heart.
It was racing.
Tears clung to my lashes, but I didn’t remember crying.
I didn’t know what I had just seen. A vision? A memory? Someone else’s nightmare?
But I felt it.
I felt it in the deepest part of me, where instinct lives and wolves whisper.
That woman, Althea, she wasn’t just a stranger in a dream.
Her voice was familiar.
Her pain, her fear, her love… all of it pulsed through me like an echo from long ago.
“My little moon…”
Who was she talking to?
And the warrior who took the child…who was he?
Was it just a dream? Or was it something more?
Why would I dream of something like this?
The questions buzzed in my mind like hornets. I wanted answers. No, I needed them.
But there was no one who could answer these questions.
