Seraphina POV
The hotel room again. It was always the hotel room.
I knew where I was before I even looked around. The heavy curtains. The dim yellow lights. The bottle of wine is sitting on the table between us. I remembered this dream the same way I remembered the day I was poisoned, very clearly.
The wine looked beautiful in the low light. Deep red, almost black at the center. Elias sat across from me with that soft smile I used to trust without question. Music played quietly somewhere behind us, the kind hotels always used to make expensive places feel warm.
In the dream, I picked up the glass again.
I always did.
Every single time, I tried to stop myself. Sometimes I tried to stand up. Sometimes I tried to throw the glass away. Once, I even tried screaming at myself not to drink it. None of it ever worked.
Dreams didn't care what you wanted.
They just kept moving.
I lifted the glass and drank.
