Chapter 27
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Vhaena
NIGHTMARE
Istood in the middle of the road, one I had taken many times.
But it was different. The cloudless sky was a dull grey, lit but without the sun.
The grass and trees around me were in shades of green that looked sickly and wrong.
The quiet was smothering, pressing down on me with a crushing heaviness. I was alone.
Or so I thought.
“I thought you’d never come,” a voice slithered against my ear.
I turned around, coming face-to-face with Asher. His expression was pleasant and soft, smiling with a kind of warmth I used to trust. It was compassionate and kind in a way that made it impossible to raise walls against. But it wasn’t right.
“Asher, you misunderstood. I never meant…”
His expression split into something bitter and resentful. He reached out a hand toward me as I stepped away, but his face flickered. For a heartbeat, the man in front of me wasn’t Asher anymore.
It was Daemon.
Then it flickered once more, and it was Asher again. Over and over.
“You’re wrong,” he said, but his voice was deformed now.
I took another step back, but the ground had swallowed my feet, holding me in place.
The face flickered again.
Asher.
Daemon.
Asher.
Their faces melted together until it was something contorted.
“You’re here for me,” the thing said, their voices layering over each other. Then it came toward me.
I shook my head and tried to get away, but my feet were stuck. I was paralyzed.
“No! I—”