“Let me be,” I hiss. I dart around them, continuing on the path toward the trees where my guide disappeared.
“This way,” his voice calls out, light and teasing. He’s enjoying this game.
“Where are you?” I call out, peeking behind a massive oak tree.
“This way!” he calls again from farther ahead. “Over here!”
I run to catch up, scrambling up a steep trail. When I reach the top of the rise, he’s there waiting for me, and I’m rewarded with a smile
“Where is the deer?” I ask.
His smile turns cold.
“I’m sorry,” he says. “It was you. It was always you.”
“What?” I reach out for him, but before I can take another step closer, a shadow in the shape of a man leaps out from the trees behind him. He’s carrying three swords, and with a single thrust, he lunges for me, driving the blades through my chest.
I drop to my knees, gasping.
It happens so fast, I don’t feel the pain. Just the shock, followed by the rush of air leaving my lungs, and the warmth of my blood as it runs down my legs and seeps into the earth.
Roses bloom in its path, growing large and fragrant, tangling in my fingers, my hair, swallowing me back into the earth.
Overhead, the full moon smiles.
* * *
I awoke with a startled gasp, my heart hammering in my chest, my hands pressed to what I was certain would be a gaping wound.
“Gray!” Ronan sat up next to me on our bed of leaves, taking my face into his hands. “What is it?”
“Just… a nightmare,” I breathed. But God, it had been so real. The forest, the swords, the shadow. The three women. The three swords.
Wait, no…There had been four swords at first. I’d had one, too.
Four swords… Four of swords…
Sophie’s tarot reading echoed through my memory.
There are four of you,she’d said.The swords represent four witches. Three standing their ground, waiting for the fourth to rise, to find them and give them purpose…
I closed my eyes, thinking back on that tarot reading. Sophie was so certain I was one of the four, that I needed to find the others. But who were they? How could I find them? What was I supposed to do?
The three of swords had turned up in that same tarot reading. Was that the shadow man? Some terrible betrayal I’d yet to endure? To even suspect?
I shivered at the thought, my whole body going cold.
“It’s okay,” Ronan said softly, rubbing slow circles on my back. “We’re going home soon. Just breathe.”
I relaxed back onto the leaves, letting him wrap his arms around me and nuzzle my neck. His body was warm and firm, his touch protective. We’d spent the night here with the others, all of us huddled together for warmth, but now there was just the two of us.
“Where are Liam and Darius?” I asked.
“Just checking things out at the pool. Sun’s almost up.”
I nodded. Today was the day we’d all go home.
So why did my heart feel so heavy?
