Last night, those words had healed a part of my soul that ached even while that didn’t make logical sense to me. I hadn’t known him long enough for either of us to feel that deeply for one another. But maybe that was a soulmate thing, maybe that was just how powerful it was supposed to feel. Last night I’d been convinced I’d dreamt the whole thing, however as I watched the mid-day sun shine into my room, I realized it being a dream did not mean it hadn’t happened. It didn’t mean Everest hadn’t been here, hadn’t said the words . . . hadn’t held me. In all of my experience with him so far, he’d always been there. I may not have understood how he moved through my dreams as he did, but he’d done it time and time again. I had no reason to doubt his presence in my dreams now, so I wasn’t going to.

My days and nights are a cold, empty void without you, and I am drowning in my need for you. Those words were the lifejacket I clung to as the waves crashed into me relentlessly. I needed him here with me. Every hour he didn’t walk through the front door to stand at my side in this war, my foundation fractured more and more.

But then another set of words popped into my mind, unwelcome and uninvited. I heard Leyka’s voice in my head, reminding me of his note that said, “And you have to do these things before Mr. Winter Frost Mountain can step into the light.”

My stomach tightened into knots so abruptly I curled into a ball and breathed heavily. Everest was waiting on me. I had to complete these potions before he could leave his mother’s army. Which meant I needed to pull myself out of this bed and get to work. With a groan, I climbed out from under my blankets and waddled over to my new closet. I wasn’t sure when or how they’d gotten all my clothes in here, but it was appreciated. My first instinct was to reach for my white sweater, but I stopped myself. We kept rushing into battle, so wearing white was a terrible idea. Plus, it reminded me of Avolire too much. With a shake of my head and those knots re-forming in my stomach, I threw on a black sweater and my black leggings with the pocket on the side. My black and white Vans were all beat-up and scuffed, and those were definitely bloodstains, but I wasn’t going to fret over them.