Gasp!
Ravina's eyes flew open, her chest heaving as if she had just surfaced from drowning.
The morning sun assaulted her vision, a blinding beam of golden light slicing through the window and searing against her retinas.
She threw an arm over her face, shrinking back into the pillows, desperate to block it out.
She wanted the darkness back. She wanted the dream back.
It had felt so visceral.
The texture of the treehouse wood, the smell of the forest rain, the warmth of his hand healing her.
It was a memory woven into a dream, a cruel reminder that while she lived in the present, her heart was anchored in a past that no longer existed.
'He doesn't remember,' she thought, the realization settling like lead in her stomach. 'He is here, in this new lifetime, but the man named Jacob is gone.'
Rustle.
The bedsheets shifted.
"What are you thinking about?"
The voice was low, calm, and painfully familiar.
Ravina slowly lowered her arm.
