That was enough to leave him truly speechless, blinking at her in disbelief. But it was so familiar to all of the nightmares he'd had that a fear gripped his throat and he pulled away from her as he tried to steady his breathing.

How many times had he heard those words from her lips? Or at least--the nightmarish version of her that had haunted him since the day she'd left the tower. Was this simply another nightmare he'd wake up from in a cold sweat? How much of what he remembered in that moment had been real versus a fantasy made up by some creature bent on destroying him from the inside?

"I--"

A breath in. A breath out.

He closed his eyes. Maybe he should have not tried to quit using lyrium, after all.

"Is this real?"