Sleep should have been a refuge.

Instead, the moment my eyes shut, the frost-mark on my wrist began to throb.

Not pain pulse.

Not heartbeat drumbeat.

A rhythm that wasn’t mine.

The world fell away.

Bone-white ground stretched in all directions.

A sky too blue to be real, too still to be alive.

Silence so deep I could hear my own blood whispering in my veins.

A shadow fell over me.

“You came quickly,” a voice murmured close enough to be felt against my ear.

I turned.

She emerged ...