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Sumner’s body trembles. There’s pain etched across her soft features, fear.

She’s already there, trapped inside his dream.

I’m too late.

“It’s not real. It’s only in your head,” I try to tell her, but I can’t breathe, because I know with certainty what happens here is permanent. Our bodies may be in my room, but he has our minds, and it’s hers he wants forever.

I’ve always been there, blending into the background. Watching. Protecting.

I was there when the shifter hurt her. I was there when the creature dared hunt her after that good for nothing dog left her alone by the lake. I even traveled to the mortal realm and paid a visit to that creepy Mr. Ambrose. All for her. Neither she nor anyone else knows how closely I watch over her. I was always going to be there, to save her. I can’t save her now.

I can’t fucking save her.

“You need to come back to me, damnit,” I grit, holding her against me. “I won’t ask again.”

Her breathing is ragged and uneven. Sumner gasps, choking on something I can’t see. The gurgles ripple through her neck, and water spills from her lips. She’s suffocating, drowning in her own nightmare. Her body jerks in my arms, falling prey to the visions in her mind.

Seeing it, hearing it, my chest is splitting.

Sumner’s eyes fall open, landing on mine. Her fingers move to hover over my jaw, looking up at me like she’s not sure if I’m really here. I stare into her mismatched-colored orbs. Vacant. Void of the light. Hollow.

She’s fading.

Her arm falls back to her side, my body aching for the contact she’d almost given me.

Even in peril, even as I hold her against me, she can’t touch me. I’ve hardened her. My little Vixen.

“Go,” she rasps on choked air, eyelids fluttering closed. “They say it’s time to go.”

“Fuck.” My own eyes clamp shut, rocking us back and forth. “Fucking fight it. I need you to fight it.”

Her body falls limp in my arms, her breathing so fucking shallow.

“Don’t you dare go,” I command. “Don’t listen to their voices. Listen to mine. Follow it back to me.”

She breathes my name.

“That’s right. I’m right here. Stay with me, Vixen.”

A cold chill blows over me. Leaves rustle around us. And out of the corner of my eye, I see them. The shadows coming to claim another.

They can’t harm us physically. Their full purpose is to strip away the shadow of others. You can never return to the light without a shadow. The moment the heart stops beating, it detaches itself from you. If one of those fuckers gets a hold of it, you’re lost forever. One of them. Lifeless, hopeless, nothingness.

They can’t have hers.

“Come back,” I beg her.

The soft beating beneath her chest grows quieter. The darkness ventures closer.

“I wanted you gone.” It’s only a whisper. “I wanted you to go back to where you came from. I hated looking at you. Hated the way I felt when you were near me. You were a fucking pest. Constantly getting yourself into trouble. I mean, look at us, Vix. Look at where we are.” I move my eyes over the ever-nearing shadows, then, lowering my voice, “This isn’t it, you know. You’re too stubborn to let them have you, and I’m too invested to let you go.” I bring my forehead to hers, feeling her smooth skin against my own. “I’m too invested in you, Vixen. You tear through my fucking soul.”

Darkness closes in around us, inching closer.

Such small and fragile things weren’t meant for the world I live in. A human could never survive. My Vixen, though, she’s more than that. Even so, darkness prevails.

It surrounds us, swallowing us whole.

I hold onto her, feeling it consume her.