I was running through a forest of silver trees when the screaming started.
The dream was so vivid I could feel pine needles crunching under my bare feet, could smell smoke and blood on the wind. Someone was calling my name, but every time I turned toward the voice, the trees shifted and changed, creating new paths that led deeper into darkness.
"Aria! Please, baby, run!"
My mother's voice, desperate and terrified. I spun around, trying to find her, but all I could see were shadows moving between the silver branches. Shadows with glowing eyes and too many teeth.
"She can't run forever, Serena. The child belongs to us."
The new voice was cold, clinical, completely human. But there was something underneath it that made my skin crawl—a hunger that had nothing to do with food and everything to do with power.
"Over my dead body," my mother snarled, and I heard the wet sound of claws on flesh.
That's when I woke up screaming.
