t. Where drea

arrived...like a god who n

gilding her throat, her collarbone, the curve of one hip slipping from beneath the quilt. Her sleep was not quiet.

A single, slow curl like a s

She lay there, half-tangled in velvet sheets that remembered the sweat of pleasure, the scent of Elora'

like cats in window seats. Candles guttered. Wine sta

smine

night

om somewhere outsi

yo

ho

was deeper. Lower. So thick with grief and warning and want it made the windows hum. It

pine

idn't

t

he wore. Her thighs pressed together slowly, instinctively, not

wl ros

time, it

moonlight. The nightgown she wore clung to her like a second skin, damp with dew and something warmer. The t

lked f

rse sh

nd male, curled into her nose. Her breath came fast. Not from fear. From something else. From knowing. Knowi

ched. Branc

followed.

n-e

shadow. Not glowing, n

topped breath

ehind the trees. But those eyes. They did n

r lips. She w

belonged to

beside her, maybe herself-and felt bark cr

ird

inside

t licked at her belly. Her knees bent. Not

hen-s

nce and something panting behind her. H

follow. But the

umbled

aught her l

before

wo

ched. Slick

r walls were lined in perfume bottles and pearls, not bark

pulse a drum. Her chest heaving like so

her neck. Her finger

she heard

ho

his time. Not

. In th

she slipped from bed. Bare feet across cold tile. A gasp

o still. The fountain frozen m

somethin

ot shaped like a man. Not quite shaped like a beast. J

shape w

wed by

ad slid between her thighs un

osed h

the nig

just for a breath....

nutes

but its echo still

d out across the pillow, wild and tangled, as though the dream had dragged her through some forest she could no

usk and pine. Earth soaked in blood. The ghost of fur brushing her thighs. She hadn'

t seemed to hum through the glass...... more silver

head slowly tow

Yet the whisper of wind carried

ms to the mattress as if grounding herself might still the ache betwe

ro

er nightdress clung, sheer and twisted, the neckline dragged

indow felt like a

ed the fram

r like a lover a

led below. Jasmine's fingers curled against

it was

f it. As if her bones remembered what her ears could no longer catch

e lean

golden pools against cobblestones. Shadows crept around the House of Solace

a creak

the

the

ase of her dresser. Whe

urned

nlight, open. Not broken. No

uth we

ger now. Not from o

ch step silent, deliberate, as though she mig

id wa

of perfume. A piece of cloth wrapped ar

il

ingers trembled, but

ed the c

eck

aybe, or ivory, carved with runes she didn't recogn

kin brushed it,

me, ins

er spine, splitting through her rib

d not

mo

pain. That wasn't pleasure.

lood on it smeared warm beneath her

ked up. Branches scra

. Her legs would not obey. Her breath came in short, sharp gasps

stance, anoth

t one t

a

ll

mon

u

But she felt it. Felt it

outh

d not

e want