The air smelled of rain and something sweeter.
Something familiar.
She turned slowly.
"Hello?"
Her voice disappeared into the trees.
Nothing answered.
Then she heard footsteps.
Slow.
Measured.
Coming toward her.
Nyvara's heart began to beat faster.
A man stepped from the shadows.
She couldn't see his face clearly. Darkness seemed to follow him, wrapping around his features like a veil. But she saw his broad shoulders, the dark strands of hair falling across his forehead, and the strange silver glow of his eyes.
Those eyes stopped her heart. She should probably run but something held her in place.
She knew him.
She didn't know how.
She simply did.
The stranger looked at her as though he had spent a lifetime searching for her.
"You're mine," he whispered.
Nyvara frowned.
"Do I know you?"
He didn't answer.
Instead, he walked toward her.
One step.
Then another.
Nyvara should have moved.
She didn't.
There was something about him that made every instinct inside her go quiet.
When he stopped in front of her, she had to tilt her head to meet his eyes.
His gaze traveled over her face, almost reverently.
"I've dreamed of you," he said.
A strange ache formed in her chest.
"I do not believe you."
His expression changed.
Something raw flickered behind his eyes.
He reached for her.
His fingers brushed her cheek.
Nyvara closed her eyes.
The touch was warm.
Careful.
Almost hesitant.
As if he were afraid she might disappear.
When she opened her eyes again, he was closer.
Close enough for her to feel his breath.
"Tell me to leave," he whispered.
Nyvara's heart hammered.
"Do you want to?"
"No." She hated how the word left her mouth but a part of her wanted him to stay, wanted this moment forever.
"Then don't."
His hand slipped gently behind her neck.
He leaned toward her.
For one suspended moment, neither of them moved.
Then his lips met hers.
The kiss was soft at first.
So soft that Nyvara wondered if she had imagined it.
Then something changed.
The stranger drew her closer, and the tenderness between them deepened into something warmer and more desperate.
Nyvara's fingers curled into the front of his shirt.
She felt his breath catch.
He kissed her again, slowly this time, as though he wanted to memorize the feeling of her.
There was no hurry.
No fear.
Only the strange certainty that they had been waiting for this moment for far longer than either of them could remember.
Nyvara melted against him.
His arm settled around her waist, holding her close.
She could feel his heartbeat beneath her palm.
Fast.
Almost as fast as hers.
When they finally parted, neither of them moved away.
Their foreheads rested together.
Nyvara opened her eyes.
The silver in his eyes had become brighter.
"Who are you?" she whispered.
The forest trembled.
He looked over her shoulder.
The smile vanished.
Nyvara felt the change immediately.
"What is it?"
He stepped away from her.
"Run."
"What?"
"I said, run!"
The ground split open.
She screamed.
A jagged crack tore through the earth between them. Trees groaned as their roots were ripped apart.
The flowers beneath Nyvara's feet withered instantly.
Fire erupted from the crack.
It shot toward the sky in enormous columns, turning the moon red.
Nyvara stumbled backward.
"Help me!"
He reached for her.
She grabbed his hand.
For one second, their fingers locked together.
Then something beneath the earth roared.
The sound was so powerful that the forest shook.
His grip tightened.
"Don't let go."
Nyvara tried.
But the earth beneath her collapsed.
His fingers slipped from hers.
She fell.
"Help..!"
She plunged into darkness.
There was no wind.
No ground.
No sky.
Only darkness.
She fell for what felt like an eternity before landing on something cold.
Nyvara slowly opened her eyes.
She was lying in an abyss.
The walls stretched impossibly high above her.
Something moved in the distance.
She stopped breathing.
A shape emerged from the darkness.
It was not a wolf.
It was not a man.
It had no proper form at all.
Its body seemed made of smoke and shadow, constantly changing.
One moment it had limbs.
The next, it was nothing more than a mass of darkness crawling across the ground.
Nyvara tried to move.
Her body refused.
The thing stopped before her.
She couldn't see eyes.
Yet she knew it was looking directly at her.
Then it spoke.
"Nyvara."
The voice came from everywhere.
The walls.
The darkness.
Inside her own skull.
She shook her head.
"No."
The creature moved closer.
"Remember."
"Remember what?"
A low sound echoed through the abyss.
"Who you are."
Nyvara's heart raced.
"I don't understand."
The creature leaned toward her.
"Nyxari."
The word struck something inside her.
Images flashed through her mind.
A woman running through flames.
A baby crying.
Blood on snow.
A silver pendant.
A black wolf standing beneath a red moon.
Nyvara gasped.
"Stop!"
The creature's voice became louder.
"Remember who you are."
The darkness erupted.
Nyvara screamed.
She woke with a violent gasp.
Her body jerked upright.
For several seconds, she didn't know where she was.
Her bedroom slowly came into focus.
The old wooden walls.
The faded curtains.
The small clay lamp beside her bed.
Morning sunlight slipped through the window.
Nyvara pressed a trembling hand against her chest.
Her heart was racing.
She looked at her fingers.
They were shaking.
"It was a dream."
She whispered the words as though saying them aloud would make them true.
Just a dream.
Yet she could still feel the stranger's lips against hers.
She could still feel his hand at her waist.
And she could still hear his voice.
Then came another voice.
"Nyvara!"
"Yes, Mama!"
"Are you awake?"
Nyvara swallowed.
"Yes."
"Then stop lying there and come downstairs. The well will not fetch the water for you."
Nyvara glanced toward the window.
The sun had barely risen.
She sighed.
"I am coming."
"And hurry!"
Her foster mother shouted from below.
"Time doesn't wait for anyone, child!"
Nyvara pushed herself out of bed.
Her feet touched the cold floor.
For a moment, she stood completely still.
Something felt wrong.
She looked around the room.
Nothing had changed.
Except...
Her eyes moved to the floor.
There was a thin trail of black dust beside her bed.
Nyvara frowned.
She crouched and touched it.
The moment her finger made contact, a sharp pain shot through her hand.
She gasped.
The black dust vanished.
"What in the world..."
"Nyvara!"
Her foster mother's voice sounded again.
"Coming!"
She quickly dressed and hurried downstairs.
Her foster mother, Maelis, stood beside the fireplace with her hands on her hips.
She was a sturdy woman in her fifties, with silver beginning to appear in her dark hair. She had raised Nyvara since she was a little girl and had always been strict about chores.
"You've been dreaming again," Maelis said.
Nyvara stopped.
"How did you know?"
"You scream."
Nyvara looked away.
"I wasn't screaming."
"You were."
Maelis handed her two empty wooden buckets.
"You were saying something too."
Nyvara's fingers tightened around the buckets.
"What did I say?"
Maelis stared at her for a moment.
"I couldn't understand you."
Nyvara felt a strange chill move through her.
"What did it sound like?"
"I can't tell, never understands a thing you say in your sleep."
Nyvara suddenly remembered the voice.
Remember who you are.
She shook the thought away.
"It was nothing."
Maelis studied her.
"Dreams are nothing until you start believing them."
Nyvara forced a smile.
"I don't believe them."
"Good."
Maelis turned toward the door.
"Now go to the well before the village women take all the water."
Nyvara nodded.
She stepped outside.
Ravenhollow was already waking.
Smoke rose from chimneys. Farmers led horses toward the fields. Children ran through the narrow streets while merchants opened their stalls.
It was an ordinary morning.
Yet Nyvara couldn't shake the feeling that something was watching her.
She walked toward the village well.
Halfway there, a black crow landed on a wooden fence.
Nyvara stopped.
The bird stared at her.
Its eyes were unnaturally bright.
She continued walking.
The crow followed.
It flew from fence to fence, never taking its eyes off her.
When Nyvara reached the well, several villagers were already gathered there.
Old Bram, the village butcher, looked at her.
"You're late."
Nyvara smiled.
"I overslept."
"Again?"
She laughed softly.
But then the bucket slipped from her fingers.
It fell into the well.
Nyvara froze.
She listened.
She expected to hear the splash.
Instead, she heard something else.
A heartbeat.
Slow.
Deep.
Boom.
Nyvara leaned over the well.
Boom.
Her breath caught.
Boom.
The sound was coming from beneath the earth.
"Nyvara?"
She didn't hear Bram.
She stared into the darkness.
Something moved far below.
Two silver eyes opened.
Nyvara stumbled backward.
The world around her seemed to disappear.
The village.
The people.
The sunlight.
Everything faded.
And once again, that voice entered her mind.
Remember who you are.
Nyvara gasped.
Then the well cracked.
A thin black line spread across the stone.
The villagers screamed.
Nyvara stared at it in horror.
Because from deep beneath the earth came a sound she had heard only moments ago in her dream.
A growl.
And then a voice.
Whispering from somewhere far below.
"Nyvara Elys."
She stopped breathing.
The black crow above her suddenly screamed and flew into the sky.
And beneath the village, something enormous began to wake.
Maelis stood frozen at the edge of the crowd.
Her face had gone completely pale.
She wasn't looking at the cracked well.
She was looking at Nyvara.
And for the first time in Nyvara's life, she saw fear in the woman's eyes.
"Mama?"
Maelis took one step backward.
Then another.
"Don't touch the well."
Nyvara frowned.
"Why?"
Maelis's lips trembled.
"Because..."
She looked toward the forest.
"Someone has found you."
