Chapter 25

The dream begins in darkness.

I’m floating on the tides of sleep, far beneath the ocean. I’ve been here a thousand years, waiting, waiting, waiting.

Centuries pass.

Out of the darkness, a tiny pinprick of light blossoms. One single point of luminosity glimmers defiantly against the void.

The centre of all.

As the sun pulls the orbiting planets, as the flame pulls the circling moth, I dance through the dark, held by that single grain of incandescence.

As I wheel through the ages, the light spreads, sends out tendrils of silver flame – threads of the spell woven across time, the last enchantment of a dying girl.

Is it that time again already?

Something’s different.

And because of that, I will not fail.

I’ll finally be free.

With every new life, I’ve failed to fully awaken. My eyes didn’t see, my ears didn’t hear, I stumbled blindly towards my fate, into his outstretched arms that kill as they cradle.

This time, it will be different.

I’ll end it.