Beautiful Demons

21. I Must Be Dreaming

My entire body burned with fever. I curled into a little ball and begged for it to stop. My eyelids felt like they were glued shut and sweat slid down the back of my neck. Inside my head, my thoughts swam around in circles, never finding a clear focus. I couldn't tell if I was awake or asleep and every time I almost climbed up into consciousness, the darkness would pull me back down.

Where was I?

My eyes fluttered open slightly, then closed again. It was dark. The sound of water dripped in the distance, almost echoing in my head as though I were inside a cave. Or a dungeon.

I must be dreaming.

There was no sense of time. There was only the endless trembling of my body against a cold, hard surface.

The sound of chanting jarred me awake. A light rose up in the darkness. A single flame. Someone took my hand and it was so warm. I opened my mouth to ask them for a blanket, but I didn't have a voice. I tried to swallow but my mouth felt like a sea of sand.

I saw the glint of silver overhead, then felt a searing pain on my palm. I tried to jerk away. To sit up. To cry out. But I was powerless and weak. Warm blood trickled down my hand and onto my wrist and the chanting continued. In the dim light, a woman with flowing black hair stood over me. Her face was covered with a shiny black mask. Her eyes glowed a deep crimson.

"She is the one," the woman said. "The Prima has finally come home."

The chanting grew louder all around me. It took every ounce of my strength to open my eyes wider and lift my head. Dark shadows swirled around the room like bats and I cried out in fear.

The woman put her hand over my eyes and my world went black. A flash of events passed behind my darkened lids, pulled from within me. Mrs. Shadowford's rattling teacup. Screams in the middle of the night. Fainting near the statue. Losing my necklace.

Panic reached up to tear at my throat. I wanted it to stop, but had no control. Tori at the stadium that night. Being questioned at the station. Meeting Lark's mother. And Jackson. His kiss was warm on my lips, then gone in an instant. Each memory slipped through my brain like water through my fingertips.

Is this what it's like to die?

I felt the cool comfort of my sapphire pendant as it was placed around my neck. I lifted my hand to the stone, then surrendered to the shadows.