Chapter 100

••• Victoria’s POV ••• I woke up on the lounge couch, my cheek pressed against Oli’s shoulder. The blanket draped over me smelled faintly of lavender—her doing, no doubt. For a second, I just breathed. The storm inside me had quieted, just a little. Suddenly, my mind drifted off to Lya. Her presence still pulsed faintly in the back of my mind. I tried to talk to her, but she didn't answer. She had gone back into her deep slumber, not stirring at all as I called her name. What was left was just the whisper of warmth, the memory of her voice from last night---that she just needed time to rest and something else. She told me something important that shocked me. I sat up slowly. The ache in my chest hadn’t vanished. It actually intensified because of Lya's words. Just like before, she had come back, even briefly, and that meant she could return again, maybe for real the next time, because the way she said it, it felt like she just needed a little bit more time before awakening fully. Or so