*Lena*
Water lapped at my toes as I stood on the shore of a rocky beach. Long ropes of orange kelp clung to rocks, drifting lazily anytime a rogue wave sucked them back toward the gray, swirling water.
None of this was real–not the mountains, not the temple built into a cliff face of pure granite, not the endless ocean or star-dappled sky.
I'd been here before. I'd walked along this same beach and entered the temple the night I got lost in a nightmare, the one brought on by the injuries I'd sustained when I fought with Xander and Bethany against Jen in the hills outside of Crimson Creek. I'd talked to a much younger version of my mother inside the temple.
I'd been standing on the beach for what felt like hours now. The cold spray of the ocean burned my cheeks, and I tasted salt on m
