Zhǐ Ruò's heart was pounding so hard she could feel it in her throat.
She sat on the furs, wrapped in Bai Yue's arms, her tears still wet on her cheeks. The warmth of the embrace was comforting, yes, but it was also suffocating. The walls of the hut pressed in on her. The strange faces she had seen, the ears, the tails, the scales, they all swam before her eyes like a fever dream.
This cannot be real, she thought. This cannot be happening. I am dreaming. I am having a nightmare. Any moment now I will wake up in my dorm room, and my roommate will be yelling at me to turn off my alarm.
She closed her eyes tight. Squeezed them shut until she saw stars.
Wake up, she commanded herself. Wake up, wake up, wake up—
She opened her eyes.
She was still in the hut.
The furs were still beneath her. The fire was still crackling. Bai Yue was still holding her.
Zhǐ Ruò's breath caught.
No, she thought. No, no, no—
