I woke up. Anxious at the situation before remembering where real life had left off, I looked to the window and saw the dimming blue sky - not yet nighttime, but getting there.
“Damn it,” I whispered harshly to myself. The worst sort of nightmare was the sort that began with waking up, making it all feel ‘so’ real.
There was a chance the nightmare would become a reality in the future. Unless I disappeared from Rowan’s life entirely, he would eventually have to find out I had been manipulating him this whole time. It would hurt him.
To the left I found another bed and a bigger room than I had been left in. I had been moved at some point.
Not seeing Rowan anywhere, I went downstairs, irrationally worried he might have somehow actually found out about my role in the Ivory Kingdom’s plan.
My whole body felt sore, likely from having walked through the Land of Night for a full day without stopping.