He was not really hers, but his bed was.She learned that lesson every morning, when he left before the sun rose, five am to be precise.
Still she waited eagerly for him every night, despite being weary and tired from exhaustion, which clung to her bones desperately.
However, tonight she felt something wrong and different, as she approached the veil. It didn't feel wrong in the way dreams sometimes frayed at the edges, this was quite different.
There was music in the air and for the first time she realized she wasn't in her lover's familiar chambers, but a wedding, hers.
Tani was the bride walking towards the far end of the aisle and at the other end stood Luca, her dark-haired groom. Composed, devastatingly controlled. He wore his power the way other men wore clothes, effortlessly, without apology.
When their eyes met, as she reached him, she couldn't help the warmth that spread through her chest so quickly it almost hurt.
"Hi," she breathed nervously at a loss for what to say.
Luca's gaze softened the moment he saw her hesitate.
"You sound nervous," he said quietly. "Having second thoughts?"
She shook her head, forcing a smile laced with disbelief. She fully understood some love was not about possession but survival. Here, he belonged to her in the only way that mattered, not by promise, not by claim but by presence.
So she wondered, what was actually happening?
Luca leaned closer, lowering his voice as if the world might overhear them, totally unaware of a gaze in their direction amongst others, sharp with intent, patient and cold, lingering just beyond the edge of light.
"You're too quiet," he murmured. "Don't think too much."
She smiled, shaky. "I was just wondering if this is all real."
His brow creased. "Does it not feel real to you?"
"It does," she lied. "Because if it is… I don't want to wake up."
Something unreadable flickered in his eyes. "Then don't," he said. "Stay. With me."
Instead of voicing her doubts, she only said " Tempting".
Just then a glass was pressed into their hands. It was Champagne, Pale gold and seemed innocent.
"To the bride and groom!" someone toasted from the high table.
The crowd echoed it. Glasses clinked.
Luca raised his own glass, his gaze never leaving hers. "I can't wait to call you my wife."
She smiled, drank and what followed after wasted no time.
The fire tore down her throat rapidly, stealing her breath, as the glass slipped from her fingers and shattered at her feet.
Luca's smile vanished instantly. "Tani?" He called with worry, he still tried to masquerade as she clawed at her chest.
"Something's wrong," he said, hands on her shoulders now. "Talk to me." He commanded.
Poison screamed through her mind, but when she opened her mouth, no sound came.
"Stay with me," Luca said, still trying to suppress the apprehension he was feeling.
Tani already felt herself slipping, pulled backward by something vast and dark.
In that instant,the light drained from the room and color from his face, knowing the inevitability of what was about to happen.
He quickly leaned closer and whispered into her ears. "I'll find you, I swear it. No matter how many lifetimes it takes." And then, the darkness claimed her completely.
She woke up gasping in the dark, lungs burning, hands tangled in her thin sheets. The familiar narrow walls of her room looming above her. The smell of yeast and exhaustion clung to the air, grounding and cruel.The weight of a life that demanded everything from her but never gave back.
Her alarm clock glowed red beside the bed and It was Five a.m,exactly as her instincts predicted.
She sat up slowly, heart pounding out of rhythm, throat still aching as if the poison had followed her through. She swallowed hard as the taste of the tainted champagne still lingered on her mouth, a painful reminder of her nightmare.
She was alive, but the certainty brought no comfort.
Rain tapped against the window, steady and real. As she stared, words fogged the glass from the outside, written in quick, slanted strokes.
Almost time.
Her breath caught and Instinctively, she blinked for a second and the words were gone in an instant and in its place was her perplexed and tired reflection staring bleakly at her.
She nearly second guessed her gut but deep down, she was sure. There was no denying it, some big shift stood right at the edge of unfolding.
Somewhere, behind the Veil, a promise had been made and a plan had been set in motion. Her lover was coming for her.
The city stirred quietly below her, as the empty repetition of the circle of her days was about to begin, Tani found herself thinking, that waking up might be worse than dying there.