Chapter 4

The name left my mouth before I could stop it.

I sat there in bed, staring at nothing.

For a few seconds, I didn't move.

Then I looked at my phone.

7:18 a.m.

I groaned.

  "Of course."

I had classes.

Again.

Apparently, the universe had decided that discovering mysterious princesses in my sleep wasn't enough of a reason to cancel university.

I dragged myself out of bed.

As I got dressed, the dream kept replaying in my head.

Not the whole thing.

Just pieces.

The garden.

The palace.

The locked western wing.

And her name.

Seraphina.

I didn't know why that bothered me so much.

Maybe because the name sounded real.

Not like something my brain had randomly invented.

I had never heard it before.

At least, I didn't think I had.

By the time I left my room, I'd already decided on one thing.

I wasn't going to think about it.

That lasted approximately twenty minutes.

At university, I sat through my first lecture while pretending to take notes.

I say pretending because I spent most of the time staring at the same line in my notebook.

At some point, my friend leaned toward me.

  "What are you writing?" She said 

I looked down.

I'd written the word Seraphina three times.

I quickly covered it with my hand.

  "Nothing."

She gave me a suspicious look. "You've been staring at that page for ten minutes."

  "I'm thinking."

  "That's dangerous." She said 

I looked at her,and rolled my eyes. "Very funny."

She smiled and went back to her notes.

I tried to do the same.

It didn't work.

I wrote the name again.

Seraphina Aurel.

I paused.

Where had the second part come from?

I stared at it.

I hadn't heard anyone say Aurel.

I hadn't seen it in the dream.

At least...

I couldn't remember.

I quickly crossed it out.

Then I stopped.

Why had I written it?

I didn't know.

I closed the notebook.

Enough.

I needed to focus.

During lunch, I searched for Seraphina.

Not seriously.

Just enough to satisfy my curiosity.

I opened my phone and typed:

Seraphina princess

Hundreds of results appeared.

Historical figures.

Fictional characters.

Books.

Movies.

Nothing that looked remotely like the girl I'd seen.

I changed the search.

Princess Seraphina ancient kingdom

Nothing.

Seraphina ancient royal family

Still nothing.

I leaned back.

  "Okay."

My friend looked over. "Okay what?"

  "Nothing."

  "You've been saying 'nothing' a lot lately." She said 

  "I've noticed."

She laughed.

I locked my phone.

Maybe I was overthinking it.

Dreams borrowed things from memory all the time.

Maybe I'd seen the name somewhere and forgotten about it.

Maybe the palace was from a movie.

Maybe Seraphina was a character from a book.

Maybe my brain had simply mixed everything together.

That explanation was much easier.

I preferred easy explanations.

Unfortunately, my dreams apparently didn't.

That evening, I came home just before sunset.

Daniel was in the kitchen.

He looked at me. "How was university?"

  "Fine."

  "Just fine?" He asked 

  "Fine with unnecessary amounts of suffering."

  "Sounds normal." He said 

I dropped my bag beside the wall.

Daniel was cooking.

Something smelled good.

I looked into the pot. "What is that?"

  "Dinner." He said 

  "I know it's dinner." I said 

  "Then why did you ask?" He asked nonchalantly 

I stared at him.

He smiled. "You're tired."

  "Very."

He handed me a spoon. "Try it."

I tasted it.

I nodded. "Not bad."

  "Not bad?" He said teasing 

  "Okay. It's good."

  "Better." He nodded 

I handed the spoon back.

For a moment, I considered telling him.

About the dreams.

About the palace.

About the girl.

About the fact that she'd appeared twice.

But I stopped myself.

What would I even say?

Daniel, I think I'm dreaming about a princess from an ancient kingdom.

He'd probably tell me to sleep more.

Which, technically, was fair.

So I said nothing.

We ate dinner normally.

We talked about university.

We argued about who had finished the last bottle of juice.

Daniel blamed me.

I blamed him.

Neither of us had any proof.

It was normal.

Comfortably normal.

And I was grateful for it.

That night, I didn't want to sleep.

Not because I was terrified.

At least, that's what I told myself.

I simply didn't want another strange dream.

I stayed awake longer than usual, scrolling through my phone.

Eventually, I realized I was fighting something I couldn't win.

I put my phone aside.

Closed my eyes.

And waited.

Sleep came quietly.

I opened my eyes.

I wasn't in the palace.

I was standing in a long stone corridor.

Sunlight poured through tall windows.

Servants moved around me carrying baskets, books, folded clothes.

Nobody noticed me.

I already knew the feeling.

I looked down at myself.

Same clothes.

Same invisible presence.

I sighed. "Here we go again."

A loud voice came from somewhere ahead.

"Princess!"

I turned.

A girl came running around the corner.

I recognized her immediately.

Seraphina.

But something was different.

She wasn't 10.

She looked older.

Maybe sixteen.

I stared.

She stopped beside a window and looked outside.

Her hair was longer now.

Her face had changed.

She wasn't the mischievous child from the garden.

There was something more guarded about her.

A servant hurried toward her.

  "Your Highness, you cannot be here." The servant said. 

  "Why?" Seraphina asked

  "Because your father ordered you to remain in your rooms.” The servant replied 

Seraphina sighed. "I wasn't going anywhere."

  "You are standing in a corridor you are forbidden to enter."

She looked behind herself.

Then smiled.

  "I was lost." Seraphina said

The servant stared at her. "You've lived here your entire life."

  "Exactly. That's why getting lost is impressive." Seraphina said seriously 

I covered my mouth.

I almost laughed.

The servant clearly didn't find it funny.

  "Please return to your room."

Seraphina reluctantly followed.

I watched them disappear around the corner.

Sixteen.

So that meant—

I stopped.

I thought about the other dreams.

Eighteen.

Ten.

Now sixteen.

I didn't know what to make of it.

The dreams weren't showing me one continuous day.

They were showing me...

her.

Different versions of her.

Different ages.

Different moments.

I followed her.

The dream shifted.

Making me dizzy.

I was standing in a library.

Seraphina was sitting alone at a desk.

There were books surrounding her.

She was writing something.

I moved closer.

She was drawing.

A strange object appeared beneath her pencil.

A tall building.

Several windows.

A road.

Something that looked like a car.

I stared at the drawing. "What is that?"

Seraphina continued drawing.

Then she stopped.

She looked toward the window.

Outside, the palace gardens were completely still.

She frowned.

I followed her gaze.

Nothing.

Seraphina returned to her drawing.

Then she whispered: "Again."

I looked at her.

She seemed confused.

She turned the page and began drawing something else.

A building much taller than the palace.

Another one beside it.

Lights.

Roads.

A strange machine.

She had never seen these things.

At least, she shouldn't have.

I stepped closer.

The drawing looked almost like a modern city.

My stomach tightened.

I looked at Seraphina.

  "Where did you see that?"

She didn't answer.

Of course.

She couldn't hear me.

But something about the way she stared at the drawing bothered me.

She looked frightened.

The dream shifted again.

  “oh lord of dreams,quick making me dizzy 😵”

This time, Seraphina was walking through the palace with another girl.

The other girl looked about her age.

She had dark hair and carried a stack of books against her chest.

Seraphina whispered something.

The girl laughed. "You're going to get us both in trouble."

  "Only if we get caught." Seraphina replied mischievously 

  "That's usually how trouble works."

Seraphina smiled.

I followed them.

They stopped in front of an old stone staircase.

The other girl looked around. "Are you sure?"

Seraphina nodded. "My father never comes here."

  "That's not what I asked." The other girl said

Seraphina smiled. "Come on, Mira."

Mira sighed. "You always say that right before something terrible happens."

They descended.

I followed.

The staircase became darker with every step.

At the bottom was a massive underground room.

Shelves covered the walls.

Ancient books filled them.

Documents were stacked everywhere.

Mira looked around. "What are we looking for?"

Seraphina walked toward a shelf. "I don't know."

  "That's really helpful." Mira said

Seraphina ignored her.

She pulled out an old book.

The moment she opened it, several loose pages fell onto the floor.

Mira picked one up.

She stared at it.

  "Seraphina..."

  "What?"

Mira handed it to her.

Seraphina read the page.

Her expression slowly changed.

I moved closer.

I couldn't read the writing.

The letters looked strange.

But beneath them was an illustration.

A drawing of a city.

Not anything I'd seen in the palace.

It was unmistakably modern.

Tall buildings.

Electric lights.

Vehicles.

Seraphina stared at it.

Mira whispered: "What is that?"

  "I don't know." Seraphina said 

  "Have you ever seen anything like it?" Mira asked a little uneasy 

  "No."

Seraphina turned the page.

There was another illustration.

Then another.

All showing things that didn't belong in their world.

She kept turning.

Until she reached the final page.

Only one sentence was written there.

Seraphina read it aloud. "They are still watching."

Mira looked around the room. "Who?"

Seraphina didn't answer.

She slowly closed the book.

For the first time since I'd seen her, she looked genuinely afraid.

I woke before I could see what happened next.

I sat upright.

My room was dark.

I checked the time.

4:06 a.m.

I rubbed my eyes.

My heart was beating hard.

Not from fear.

From confusion.

I reached for the notebook on my bedside table.

I turned on the lamp.

Then I wrote everything I could remember.

Seraphina.

About 16.

Mira.

Underground archive.

Modern city.

"They are still watching."

I stared at the last sentence.

Something about it wouldn't leave my mind.

Who were they?

And what exactly were they watching?

I looked at the page again.

Then I noticed something.

I had written another word beneath the list without realizing it.

Aurelia.

I stared at it.

I didn't know where the word had come from.

But somehow...

I was almost certain it belonged to her.