When I did open them, it was to see the deep velvet-blue nighttime sky colored by patches of cerulean and spattered with bright stars, all of it glittering like swirled diamond dust.

Lying on my back in the boat, its wooden edges in my periphery, I couldn’t help the soft “ohh” that escaped my lips.

Had I ever seen anything so beautiful in my entire life?

The slow passing of the sky and the sound of disturbed water had me sitting up fast in the boat, so that I suddenly found myself face-to-face with the answer to that exact question.

He stood at the stern, sculling us forward over the water with the long staff he held between both hands.

“Erik—”

He made no reply. Just watched me with a steady and serious stare, grave and breathtaking as any dark angel.

The glassy waters of the lake mirrored the sky, giving the disturbing illusion that the world had no up or down. Trees lined the darkened shore that surrounded us on all sides. But no sounds or movement emanated from the forest, and no wind whisked over the waters. We were somewhere, but also, as had been the case with the other dreams, nowhere at all.

And like always, it was just the two of us.

“Erik,” I said, my voice too loud in the near silence. “What’s happened? Where are we?”

“There exists on the grounds a lake,” he said. “Not too far into the woods. Didn’t you know?”

I scowled at his response, as the growing sense that something wasn’t right began to expand within me. Dad had mentioned the lake, but that the realtor had told him it now belonged to an adjacent lot.

“Why did you bring me here?” I asked him.

“I wish to thank you, Stephanie,” he said coolly. “For setting me free.”

“S-so,” I stammered, “it worked. The curse. It’s broken?”

“I told you. The curse can never be broken.”

I frowned, tilting my head at him, confused. Why was he acting this way?

“Did I do something wrong?” I asked. “Did . . . did we somehow make it worse?”

To that, he said nothing, just lifted and lowered his staff, driving us toward the shore that never seemed to get any closer. The ripples raced one another to infinity over the star-specked waters. As they vanished, I redirected my attention, noting for the first time what I was wearing.

A gown.

Satin drop-shoulder sleeves adorned my arms, linking with a burgundy bodice that hugged my torso. Layered skirts and petticoats covered my legs—garments of another time.

Erik had always been responsible for how the world appeared in these dreams, but this marked the first instance that I myself had incurred any change. And this dress. I’d seen it before. On the masked figure. The one who had attempted to draw me into the basement. The one who had looked so much like . . .

“Did you do this?” Returning my gaze to his, I gestured to the gown. “You should probably know that dresses aren’t really my thing.”