𝙴𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚖𝚘𝚛𝚎 ✔

Chapter Twenty-Three

The original dream returned. The one that had presented itself to me the most. Yet, this time it was the clearest it had ever been before. No longer fragments, incoherent bits of dreams, but small moments pieced together to create a bigger picture.

The young man with the blurry face from before stood in the doorway of the castle, the large hand carved doors looming behind him, face as clear as day. He was a young version of Adam.

The woman's voice belonged to a tall silver haired woman with the same amber eyes I had seen in the tree line of a previous dream. It was all starting to fuse together, and I had begun to understand what these dreams were trying to show me.

I did not think it possible for me to have been able to see things that had happened without me even being present, yet for some reason everything felt real. Perhaps I had just conjured up the images from things I had heard from Devolle, Madame and even Adam. He had not long ago explained to me what happened to him the night the Witch cursed him.

Though, it did not explain how I dreamt about the woman in the snow long before Madame had found out and sent me the letter about my mother, and how I saw the castle in my dreams long before I had even actually seen it in person.

I needed more information; I needed the complete sequence of events to realize the purpose, to be able to tell if the dreams were real or just figments of my imagination conjured up from hearsay. I wanted to know what they were trying to tell me and why it had become clearer since I had gotten to the castle.

It felt as if something had been beckoning me to the castle for quite some time, and it called me still.

The sun flooded into the room from the uncovered windows, forcing me to cover my eyes. I had no recollection of ever going to bed the night before, and when I opened my eyes, I realized that there was a reason for that. I had not made it to the bed, in fact I had slept on the love seat the entire night.

I went to sit up, but something weighed me down and I couldn't move. I squinted trying to adjust to the sunlight as I peered down to figure out what was so heavy. There, wrapped around my waist, laid an arm that was connected to a sleeping Adam anchoring me to him. The two of us slept the entire night tangled up with one another on the love seat. Which, I must say, had been more comfortable than the bed I used to sleep on at home.

His face looked so smooth up close, as if it were made of porcelain, and his eyelashes were much longer that I thought, as they almost rested upon his cheeks. Several strands of his soft blonde hair had fallen onto his face, and when he breathed, they would move just ever so slightly.

I had never seen him so relaxed, so comfortable, and something in me wanted to reach up and carefully brush the hair from his face, but instead I did nothing but silently admire his beauty.

A few moments past and I started to feel awkward about the whole thing. I questioned if it was odd for me to continue to stare at him while he slept, because I myself would have found it rather unsettling.

I went from happily enjoying the closeness to becoming nervous and internally questioning everything and repeating things like, 'What in God's name was I thinking?', 'How did we end up like this?', and 'I cannot believe I slept next to a man without being married.', to myself.

My face started to feel hot as the embarrassment started to seep in. However, oddly enough, I had not woken up drenched in sweat because of the dream, nor did I ever feel like my blood was boiling. I was unsure if it was because Adam was next to me all night, or if it was just because the dreams had started to become whole and flow more smoothly.

Out the corner of my eye, in the middle of my existential crisis, I saw him slowly open his eyes. He like I, shielded himself from the blinding sunlight, and after a moment he looked up at me. I watched as his face lit up, and a small smile started to form in the corners of his mouth. But as soon as the realization hit, I felt his heart begin to hammer into my back and he started to pull away from me.