Lux (The Nocte Trilogy 3)

I run through the dark house,

Out the door, through the night,

And into the Carriage House.

I leap onto the couch next to him, wrapping the sheet around us both.

He stirs, but he doesn’t push me away.

“The nightmares, Dare,” I whimper. “Make them stop.”

“Shh, little mouse,” he says quietly and his arms wrap around my waist, pulling me close. “You’re safe now.”

But I don’t think I am.

I don’t think I am.

“I don’t want to be alone,” I tell him, turning into his chest. He lets me.

“You aren’t,” he promises. “Not ever.”

This can’t be my life. It has to change. It has to be normal.

I’m determined to fix it

Fix it

Fix it.

I fall asleep finally, since Dare is so near, and I fall asleep twisting his ring round and round and round, because it is somehow a key, and the boy in the hood wants it, and because of that, because of that…

I know he probably shoudn’t have it.

I sleep uneasily,

Restlessly.

And when I wake,

Finn is in the window.

His face is startled,

And he clutches a St. Michael’s medallion in his hand.

Protect me, St. Michael.

The voices, the words…. They swirl around me so loudly that I can hardly focus on Finn’s horrified face, but I do. I concentrate and look and see him.

Finn looks from me to Dare.

Wait.

To Dare.

To Dare.

Does he see Dare?