Chapter 5: Romie

Romie dreams in a world that feels different: the witches’ sleepscape smells of rain and earth, yet the guiding song of her destiny still anchors her. Resolute about moving forward despite losses at the Selenic Order and her separation from Nisha, Romie seeks the familiar bright star of Aspen’s dreaming.

Drawn instead to Bryony’s equally bright star, Romie enters Bryony’s dream and finds childhood warmth—shared chocolate and laughter with Aspen. The scene is shadowed, however, by umbrae gathering to feed, and by a separate, older darkness whispering in an alien tongue. Recognizing the peril of being consumed, Romie withdraws.

When Aspen’s dream-warm star vanishes, Romie unexpectedly finds Aspen herself on the starlit path, eyes veiled white, as if scrying while awake. Aspen seems unaware and strained, clutching her chest. Romie reaches to help, but contact triggers a rapid metamorphosis: Aspen’s form shifts into a beautiful young man, then into a massive, flame-wreathed beast glaring with molten amber eyes.

Jolted, Romie tears herself from the sleepscape and wakes shaking. She considers whether Aspen is possessed like Bryony but rejects it; the beast’s amber gaze and the emotions she sensed from Aspen feel like affection and kinship, not fear. The encounter leaves Romie convinced Aspen’s connection is to a fiery, ancient power bound to her—distinct from the entity that overtook Bryony—and that something darker still stalks the sleepscape.