I swallowed another sleeping pill, hoping it would drown out the confusion from the vision that had flashed through my mind when Julian's amulet struck my temple. The memory felt both foreign and familiar—a moonlit clearing, emerald eyes, a boy's promise.
"Wait for me..."
The pill's drowsiness crept over me as I curled into a ball on Violet's bedroom floor. My fingers traced the dried blood on my temple where the amulet had hit me. The physical pain was nothing compared to the ache in my heart.
Sleep pulled me under, a temporary escape from the nightmare my life had become.
---
Natalie Beaumont sat on a stone bench in the hospital garden, waiting for Julian to pick her up. The morning sun warmed her face, and a light breeze ruffled her perfectly styled blonde hair. After two weeks in the hospital, she was finally being discharged, and everything was falling into place.
