"As much as you want, Trine," he says, his fingers curling around a strand of my hair. He sighs again, his shoulders slumping, and he closes his eyes. "I came here to tell you to keep going."
"Keep going?" I echo, my words sounding hollow in the room.
"The exorcists are going to want to stop you," he says. "They’re going to warn you that it’ll be too much. Don’t believe them."
My mouth falls open. My breath shakes. "Why would they say that? They just want to help me," I say. "They want to help Tom."
He laughs, no humor in his voice. He touches my face the way the priest did, his finger tracing the outline of my jaw, his palm cupping my cheeks protectively. "They won’t understand," he says softly, his tone soothing. I want to fall asleep, to give into the darkness—because I can feel it spiraling around us, the vines around us dying and growing again and again, like they’re on a timelapse video.
Except the time between the two of us has stopped.
I’m not sure why I know this, but I know it—just like I know my name, or where I was born, or what each string on the bass is. I lean my forehead against the man, trying my best to push away the darkness. "What won’t they understand?"
"How much you need this, Trine," he says. "How important this is. How important you are."
"I’m…not," I say, my voice shaky. "I’m not."
"But you are, Trine," he says softly, his breath so close to my face it tickles my skin. He smells so good—like freshly sugared lemonade. It takes everything in me not to press my lips against his, and I can tell that he notices because he laughs under his breath. "You can change the world. You just have to see this through. Don’t let them stop you."
I’m about to ask him more questions, but a screech in the distance interrupts me, and the sound grows loud and sharp enough for me to clap my hands over my ears. I open my mouth to ask him what the fuck this is about, but when I open my eyes again, I’m in my room.
My real room.
And he’s gone.
The dream is over.
I just need to figure out why this room still smells like him.