Mira's POV
I woke up with dirt under my fingernails and pine needles in my hair.
Again.
My tiny apartment bedroom spun as I sat up, my heart pounding like I'd been running for miles. The dream was still fresh in my mind—the massive black wolf with golden eyes watching me from the shadows of a moonlit forest. The same wolf I'd been seeing in my dreams since I was seventeen.
But this time felt different. This time, I could swear I still smelled the forest. Still felt the cold night air on my skin.
I stumbled to the bathroom and stared at my reflection. Mud streaked my pale cheek. Leaves tangled in my dark brown hair. Scratches marked my arms—thin red lines like I'd been running through branches.
"Happy twenty-fourth birthday to me," I whispered.
My hands shook as I washed my face. The dreams were getting worse. More real. Last week, I'd woken up with wet grass stains on my bare feet. The week before that, my pajamas had been torn.
Either I was sleepwalking into the woods behind my apartment building, or I was losing my mind.
Probably both.
I barely had time to shower and change before rushing to work at Thornridge Books, the small bookshop where I'd worked for three years. Mrs. Chen, my boss, looked up from the register as I burst through the door fifteen minutes late.
"Mira, this is the third time this week—"
"I know, I'm sorry. It won't happen again."
But it did happen again.
Two hours later, while shelving books in the back corner, exhaustion hit me like a wave. I'd barely slept in weeks, terrified of the dreams. My eyes grew heavy. The bookshelf in front of me blurred.
Just for a minute, I told myself. I'll just close my eyes for one minute.
The forest appeared instantly.
Moonlight filtered through massive trees, casting silver shadows across the ground. And there he was—the black wolf, bigger than any normal wolf should be, with eyes like liquid gold that seemed to see straight into my soul.
He stepped closer. I should have been terrified, but I wasn't. I'd seen him so many times in my dreams that he felt familiar. Safe, even.
"Hello," I whispered.
The wolf's ears twitched. He opened his mouth, and I swear he tried to speak—
"MIRA!"
I jerked awake to find Mrs. Chen standing over me, her face bright red with anger. A customer stood behind her, clutching her purse and looking at me like I was crazy.
"You were asleep!" Mrs. Chen shouted. "Standing up, asleep, mumbling about wolves and forests!"
"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to—"
"This young woman frightened me terribly," the customer said, backing toward the door. "She was saying something about a cursed king and blood on the moon. It was disturbing!"
My stomach dropped. I'd been talking in my sleep? About what?
"I think you need to see a doctor," Mrs. Chen said, but her voice was cold now, not concerned. "I can't have you scaring away customers. You're fired, Mira. Please leave."
"Wait, please—I need this job. I can explain—"
"Leave. Now."
I grabbed my coat and stumbled out into the cold afternoon air, my vision blurring with tears. I'd lost jobs before because of my "sleeping problem," but I'd never had anywhere else to go. No family. No real friends. Just me and my tiny apartment and the dreams that were destroying my life.
When I got home that evening, my landlady, Mrs. Rodriguez, was waiting in the hallway.
"Mira, we need to talk."
No. Not this. Not today.
"I've received complaints from the other tenants," she said, not meeting my eyes. "They say you scream in your sleep. That you walk the halls at night mumbling to yourself. One neighbor said she saw you sleepwalking outside at two in the morning last week."
"I can explain—"
"I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to ask you to leave. You're disturbing the peace, and honestly, Mira..." She lowered her voice. "People are saying you're cursed or something. It's bad for business."
Cursed.
The word hit me like a slap.
"I need two weeks to find somewhere else," I begged. "Please, just two weeks."
Mrs. Rodriguez shook her head. "I need you out by tomorrow morning. I'll refund this month's rent, but you can't stay here anymore."
She walked away, leaving me standing in the hallway of the apartment I was about to lose.
That night, I sat on a park bench with everything I owned stuffed into two garbage bags. No job. No home. Twenty-four years old and completely alone.
The local doctor had told me last month that I should consider checking myself into a psychiatric facility. "These vivid dreams, the sleepwalking, the confusion between sleep and waking—it's not normal, Mira. You need help."
Maybe he was right. Maybe I was crazy.
As darkness fell, exhaustion pulled at me again. I was so tired. So, so tired.
I closed my eyes, just for a moment.
The Dreamscape appeared, but this time it was different. More solid. More real.
The black wolf stood in front of me, but as I watched, his form began to shimmer and change. His body shifted, bones cracking and reforming, until a man stood where the wolf had been.
He was tall and beautiful in a dangerous way, with dark hair and those same impossible golden eyes. He wore simple clothes—a dark shirt and pants—and he looked at me with such desperate sadness that my heart ached.
"Mira," he said, and his voice was rough like he hadn't spoken in years. "You need to listen to me very carefully. You need to stop coming here."
I opened my mouth to ask who he was, what was happening, but he stepped closer, and I could see fear in his eyes. Real, terrible fear.
"In three days, when the full moon rises, you'll turn twenty-four and a half," he said urgently. "The curse will activate completely. It will pull you to me in the physical world, and when that happens..." He closed his eyes. "We both die, Mira. You were created to end me. And I've been waiting for you my whole life."
"What are you talking about? Created? Curse? I don't understand—"
"Your birthmark," he said, pointing to my shoulder where I had a crescent moon-shaped mark I'd had since birth. "It's burning right now, isn't it?"
I touched my shoulder through my coat and gasped. The birthmark was hot—so hot it felt like fire against my skin.
"Who are you?" I whispered.
The man looked at me with eyes full of longing and regret.
"My name is Kieran Nightshade," he said. "And I'm the reason you can never have a normal life. I'm sorry, Mira. I'm so sorry."
The dream began to fade, but his voice followed me.
"Don't come to the forest. Whatever you do, don't come to Shadowveil Forest. If you do, the curse completes, and everything ends."
I woke up on the park bench, gasping for air.
My shoulder was on fire.
I yanked down my coat and stared at the birthmark. It was glowing—actually glowing—with silver light that pulsed like a heartbeat.
And in the distance, I heard a wolf howl.