Hope's hands curled into fists at her sides, her body tense as if she were one wrong word away from unleashing all the fury she carried. But she didn't. The girl before her wasn't just another stranger wandering into the Salvatore School's territory. Selene radiated something that demanded patience, caution even if Hope's instincts told her she should strike first, ask questions later.
"You're saying Malivore breaking apart… did something to the dream world?" Hope's voice was steady, but her chest ached with the echo of everything she'd already lost. Malivore was supposed to be over. She had burned, bled, and nearly broken herself to see it done.
Selene's eyes gleamed. "Not the dream world. To all worlds." She brushed her fingertips across the damp bark of the tree, her nails trailing a faint shimmer that vanished instantly. "When a prison like Malivore shatters, it doesn't just disappear. Pieces remain. And those pieces don't stay where they're meant to."
Hope stepped closer, trying to catch her off guard with the weight of her stare. "And you know this… how?"
Selene's lips twitched into something between a smile and a sigh. "Because I was born in the fracture between waking and dreaming. I feel it more than I understand it. I didn't ask for it." She looked away, her voice dropping. "But I can't ignore it."
The vulnerability was fleeting, gone as quickly as it appeared. In its place, that strange stillness returned, and Hope was left wondering whether Selene was being honest or merely telling her what she wanted to hear.
Before Hope could press further, the night itself shifted. A gust of wind rushed through the clearing, scattering leaves across the ground. Both girls looked up at the same time, instincts sharpening.
The sky had darkened not fully, not naturally, but in a way that felt wrong. The clouds swirled, heavy, though no storm brewed. Hope's breath caught as she felt it again. the blur, the pull. The sensation of being dragged toward sleep even though her body resisted.
Selene closed her eyes. "It's happening again."
"What's happening?" Hope demanded.
The forest answered.
Shapes moved in the darkness between trees, too quick to fully see, too vague to call human. A chorus of whispers rose with the wind, low and feverish, growing louder until the voices overlapped, echoing one another like a thousand different people speaking the same words out of sync.
"she's here she's here she's here"
Hope braced herself, magic sparking faintly at her fingertips, but Selene's expression turned grim, almost resigned.
"They're not real," she said, though her voice wavered. "They're dreams leaking through."
"Dreams don't do that."
"Not until now."
One of the figures lurched forward, stumbling into the moonlight. Hope's chest tightened as she recognized the face.
It was Landon.
His eyes were hollow, his mouth parting in a silent plea, his frame fragile the way she remembered the night he dissolved into Malivore's void.
Hope's magic pulsed in response, her body trembling. "No," she whispered, shaking her head. "No, that's not real."
Selene's hand shot out, gripping Hope's wrist firmly. Her touch was colder than it should have been, grounding and unnerving at once. "He's not. If you give into it, if you believe it's him, you'll lose yourself."
Hope's heart hammered as the figure staggered closer, reaching out a trembling hand. Everything inside her screamed to run, to fight, to save him. but Selene's voice cut through like a blade.
"Look at me, not him."
Hope's eyes flicked to Selene's. Those silver-storm irises glowed faintly, steady and unyielding.
"Breathe," Selene urged, her tone almost like a command. "Anchor yourself. He isn't here. He's a dream echo. Nothing more."
Hope's breath came ragged, but slowly, slowly, the figure blurred and collapsed into a wisp of smoke, scattering like ash on the wind.
The whispers receded. The dark shapes melted back into the trees. Silence returned.
Hope staggered back, tearing her wrist free from Selene's grip. "What the hell was that?" she demanded, her voice trembling with anger and fear tangled together.
Selene drew in a long breath, her chest rising and falling. "The price of doors opening where they shouldn't. Your grief pulled him through. That's what they feed on emotion. Memory. Pain."
Hope's fists trembled. "You don't get to talk about my grief like you understand it."
"I don't have to understand," Selene said softly, her expression unreadable. "I only have to warn you. Because if the wrong thing crosses over… it won't stop at your dreams. It will use them to get to you. To everyone."
The words lingered, heavy, as the moon pushed its way free of the clouds again.
again if something wrong in the writing. please tell me so i can fix them