Zephyra's POV
I stared at myself in the bathroom mirror, arms braced on the sink, hair sticking to my temples, breath shallow like I'd just run a mile even though I hadn't moved in minutes.
My reflection didn't look any different.
I still had the same brown eyes and the same tired face, and I was still the same girl who was still too scared to ask the questions she really wanted answers to.
"You're fine," I whispered to myself. "Just… forget it."
But the truth was, I hadn't forgotten anything.
The nightmare was still clinging to me. It wasn't like a regular bad dream, the kind you wake up from, brush off, and move on. No, this one felt too real, too heavy, and way too dark for me, like I'd actually been there. In it.
In that black place. That cold, swallowing nothingness that tried to pull me under.
Astraea had said that it was some kind of rift, a nightmare realm. Something that should've never touched me, and something connected to the underworld, her world.
