Chapter 231

Still Dante Point of view:

The dream refuses to end. It's like she challenges me, because I know she is watching.

It coils around my throat, a silk ribbon that tightens each time I pull for air. Shadow, salt, a woman’s laughter braided with a woman’s scream—two notes bent into one until I can’t tell which belongs to the past and which belongs to me.

I wake already moving, hand at my neck, nails di