[WARNING! Unedited! Don't buy!]
I stood. "Encouraging."
"You prefer lies?" he asked.
I didn't answer.
He left us then.
Just… gone again.
Caroline hugged herself. "I don't trust him."
"Good," I said. "Never trust immortals."
"What about you?" she asked softly.
"I don't trust myself either," I admitted.
That night, sleep came in fragments.
Dreams of fire.
Water rising.
Valerius laughing.
Morgana's eyes.
And a shadow that wore my face.
When I woke, dawn was bleeding through the cracked window.
Caroline was already awake.
"I had a nightmare," she whispered.
"Me too."
She hesitated. "In mine… I drowned someone."
My chest tightened. "Was it me?"
She shook her head. "No. But it felt like it could've been."
We sat in silence.
Waiting.
When Sol returned, his presence felt heavier than ever.
"Today," he said, "we find out what you truly are capable of."
Caroline stood, trembling.
I stepped beside her. "She won't be alone."
Sol studied me. "That's what scares me."
