In my dream someone’s screaming. It’s terrifying and I try to run away but the echoes follow me. And then there’s warmth. Such wonderful delicious heat that pours through my entire body so bright it’s almost painful. I don’t open my eyes—I don’t need to. This is my dream, so I know who’s talking when they beg me to stay with them, when they tell me not to sleep. But why wouldn’t I sleep?

It’s safe here in the warmth and I was so cold before. I don’t want to be cold again.

Catcher’s lips press against my closed eyelids and along my ear and my jaw. He touches his forehead to mine and I don’t understand why he’s crying.

It’s my dream. He should be happy like I am. Happy and safe and warm.

Wake up, he begs me. Please wake up.

I startle awake and every inch of my body burns.

“It’s okay,” someone says, his voice reverberating through me, and I realize I’m tucked against a body. I can tell by the heat that it’s Catcher. We’re lying on something soft and it takes me a moment to recognize that we’re in my bed, in my room.

Catcher’s lips rest lightly against my forehead.

I’m about to ask him what’s going on. I’m about to pull away when I remember the shore and the snow with a terror so deep that I feel like I won’t ever be able to breathe again.

“Abigail!” I shout, remembering how blue her lips looked, how hard she was shaking.

“It’s okay,” he murmurs again. “She’s in her own bed recovering. She’s safe. You’re both safe now.”

I collapse, turning my head away from him. I try to remember exactly how I got here, but all I recall is the cold and the wind. “What happened?”

Catcher takes a deep shaking breath. “They held Elias in a room all day so he couldn’t get you off the shore. When they let him go he ran to find you but you weren’t there. He thought you were dead. He came running back here and found you both just inside the door downstairs.”

He opens his mouth to say more but then closes it as if he’s reconsidering. I feel his arms tighten around me. “All that matters is that you’re okay now,” he finally says, but I can’t truly believe him. I feel like I’ll never be warm again, my body shivering with the memories. “I talked to Ox,” he adds. “Nothing like that will ever happen again. Ever. Not if he wants my cooperation.”