She winced, flopping back off it. If Jaren fell asleep with one of his daggers in the bed again, convinced someone was going to murder her in her sleep, she was going to whip him in the face with it.

A breeze hit her bare skin, and she shuddered, leaning her head up and cracking open an eye only to freeze in place.

No.

No. No. No.

Her stiff muscles pulled and screamed at her sudden movement as she shot up to a full sitting position, scrambling to cover herself with a blanket, only to grasp handfuls of pebbles instead. “Oh gods, not again. Please, no.”

She looked beside her, where Jaren should have been, but her only companion was the sharp, glowing rock embedded in the ground that she’d rolled on. Jaren, their bed, the room, all of it was gone. Her heart sped up as she frantically darted her gaze around, still groggy from sleep.

Or maybe she was still asleep, and this was just a dream this time. She placed her hand on top of the stone and pressed down, slicing her palm open and grimacing. Did people feel pain in dreams? She’d certainly felt the pain of water filling her lungs during the last vivid one she’d had.

Feeling nauseated, she shoved the memory of drowning to the back of her mind. It wasn’t going to help. Just the thought of it had her lungs burning.

“Jaren?”

Nothing. A hint of his scent hit her nose, but it was faint, likely from the residual release that’d dripped out of her during the night and dried on her thighs. She’d been so depleted; she’d made him do all the work and then promptly passed out naked after he’d cleaned her up.

And although she couldn’t see him now, she could definitely feel him. She’d been too panicked in the lake last time to notice him until he’d raced to find her, but she was significantly calmer this time with both feet on land.

She closed her eyes and rubbed at the center of her chest, focusing on Jaren’s heart. It beat in a steady rhythm, indicating he was still asleep next to her. So, if anything happened, he’d sense it immediately and wake her. She could do this.

“Stop being a child, Vera. Come on. Figure it out.”

Biting back a groan, she placed both hands on the ground and pushed to her feet, her knees popping as she did. It was unfair to still have the bruising pain of sore muscles when she was fairly confident her actual body wasn’t even moving.

She turned in a slow circle, taking in her surroundings. The first thing she noticed was the endless lake to her left, its unmoving black water taunting her. “Yeah, I recognize you, you piece of shit.”

She subconsciously stepped away from it, already feeling a cold sweat break across her skin over the shadowed memory of it rising over her chin.

She still needed to find time to add swim lessons onto her list of things to learn, along with reading Thyabathi, attending etiquette classes, and learning how to use her abilities at will. No biggie.