She dreamed of light.
But not moonlight.
This was something else, warmer, older. A glow that pulsed from nowhere and everywhere, casting golden threads through the air like dust caught in breath.
Everly stood barefoot in a garden that didn't exist.
She knew it couldn't.
Because nothing in Ironfang ever smelled like this. Not the wild sweetness in the air. Not the rich earth beneath her feet. Not the scent of blossoms that seemed to sigh when she passed.
And still she walked.
The sky was lavender. The trees curved gently, tall and graceful, their leaves singing in a language she couldn't name. Somewhere distant, water trickled—slow and rhythmic, like the pulse of something dreaming.
Vines crept along pale stone arches, blooming with silver flowers that opened as she neared. The path ahead shimmered, soft with moss and light.
She turned a corner.
And saw it.
A door.
Set into the side of a massive willow tree, its bark glowing faintly around it. The door was narrow, tall, made of wood so pale it looked carved from bone. No handle. No keyhole. Only a faint spiral engraved at its center.
It pulsed. Once.
Like a heartbeat.
Everly stepped forward.
She didn't speak.
Didn't breathe.
Her fingers hovered just above the spiral when a breeze passed behind her, not cold, but strange. It carried a whisper. Gentle. Female. Ageless.
"Not yet."
She froze.
The garden dimmed.
The flowers closed.
The door's light faded.
Her heart thundered, not in fear, but in *recognition*.
Then the ground shivered beneath her feet, like something exhaling.
A second whisper came, not a voice, exactly. A feeling, brushing the inside of her skin.
"Soon."
The garden unraveled.
Petals turned to ash.
Branches curled away.
And the sky bled into black.
---
She woke with a gasp.
The forest was cold again. Her clothes were damp with dew. Her arms ached from how tightly she'd curled into herself.
Her hands were trembling.
Selene stirred faintly, but said nothing.
And Everly... just lay there, staring up at a sky that had no color.
She didn't understand what she'd seen.
But something had changed.
She could feel it, in her bones, in her blood, in the silence.
Something had seen her.
And it was waiting.