The dream came again, as it always did before the full moon.
Ashriel woke with a sharp, involuntary inhale, his silver eyes snapping open into the heavy, velvet darkness of his shared dormitory. For several long, suspended seconds, he remained utterly motionless beneath the cool black sheets, chest rising and falling in measured rhythm while the remnants of the nightmare clung to him like blood-soaked shadows seeping into his very skin. The visions refused to dissipate easily, lingering at the edges of his consciousness with cruel persistence.
Silence swallowed the room whole, but silence had never meant peace. Not when the full moon loomed so close. Not when tomorrow night threatened to unravel everything once more.
