Page 111 of Whisper of Nightmares

Her thoughts return to the creature in her dreams.

Maybe it is nothing more than a coincidence.

Maybe she is grasping at anything that might make sense of the impossible.

But if the man in this bed is the man she has been meeting at night…

Then perhaps she has already been speaking to the person who knows exactly what happened to him and can tell her how to wake him.

Chapter 22

The Vast Reaches of Helheim

Exhaustion fights her, but eventually, Euphemia claims the sleep she needs to cross into the dream realm⁠—

Or at least, that’s where she thinks she’s going.

This time, when Euphemia awakens, it’s with cold water lapping at her waist.

Salt thick in the air.

A grey, sandy shoreline stretches in the distance.

Unfamiliar.

Bleak.

There is not a violet meadow or dark cave or formidable fortress in sight.

Unease twists inside her belly. She shouldn’t be here. She was supposed to return to Helheim. Find Ash—or Dagfinn—or whoever he is. She was supposed to finally have answers to all the mysteries that have turned her life upside down.

But this?

This is all wrong.

Euphemia’s heart pounds, panic sinking in⁠—

A hand presses over her mouth. She recognizes the rough callouses. The slightly charred cedar scent that she’s come to find comforting over these past few days.

Euphemia turns to face him, her heart in her stomach.

She supposes it’s a good thing they’re wading in strange water because she’s not ready for whatever confrontations awaits them on shore.

Ash lifts a finger to his skull. His ocean eyes stare out at the sea, frozen in fear.

Sound floods around her. The sloshing of something moving through the water. Burbling, gurgling groans that sound muted and waterlogged. Like water is forever pooling in their throats. Clogging their lungs. Over and over again. Sobs wrenched between gasps and drowning.

Euphemia watches the Ash, awaiting his cue.

Slowly, he releases her mouth and taps the finger over her skull for emphasis. As if she needed the instruction, but she nods her understanding anyways.

Already, the waves climb higher, inching past her hip bones toward her navel.

Ash jerks his head for her to follow him, and they start to move slowly. Wading through sloshing water. Trying not to disturb whatever is beneath.

She feels it lurking.

Something drifting nearby.