80

I don’t know what wakes me up. I only know that the darkness I’m staring at isn’t the familiar wall of my own eyelids. Everything shifts around me. Slowly, I recognize the ceiling, the walls, and the moonlight filtering through the gap in the drapes.

Asher is breathing evenly beside me in the bed. It’s a comforting sound. I rock sideways to hug him, eager for his presence to lull me back to sleep. The slope of his nose and strong chin glow in the starlight through the window.

And that’s when I see it.

Someone else is standing over him.

In the diffused light, Madison’s hair looks like cloud vapor. It drifts from side to side as she hovers over Asher with something clutched in her fist. Something sharp.

Time is sluggish; it takes decades for me to draw enough air into my lungs.

Madison strikes downward. I scream simultaneously.

Asher’s eyes pop open. In a blur, he shoots his arm up, snatching Madison by her thin wrist just before she can touch him. Grunting, he twists his body, wrenchin