Chapter 357 The Line Between Dreams and Reality

Cecilia ’s pov

“My hallucination ?” I repeated. Even to my own ears, my voice sounded far away.

“So you’re saying Harper never ran out here ? Tang didn’t jump out a window ? I made all of that up ?”

I stared at Sebastian’s face in the moonlight.

“So I’m just… crazy ?”

I reached up and touched his jaw, feeling the stubble beneath my fingers.

“And you ? For all I know, you’re not even real. If I blink, maybe you’ll disappear, and I’ll wake up back on the couch with Harper and Tang, watching some dumb movie.”

The more I talked, the more I felt like I was losing touch with reality. I knew I was awake, but everything felt off.

Sebastian didn’t answer right away.

I caught a flicker of regret on his face.

He didn’t say a word. So I threw my arm around his neck and bit his shoulder. Hard.

“Yep. Definitely a hallucination,” I muttered.

Sebastian let out a breath that was half laugh, half sigh.

“Right. I’m 100% imaginary. Close your eyes, count to a thousand, and I’ll be gone.”

Then he picked me up and started walking toward the exit.

“No! I can’t leave Harper here!” I protested. “We need to find her!”

“Close your eyes,” he said calmly. “I’ll take you to her.”

I squirmed in his arms.

“She disappeared, Sebastian. One second she was there, and then… nothing. Even if no one took her, something made her stop answering. I can’t just walk away!”

His grip tightened slightly.

“Don’t panic. I’m a hallucination, remember ? Keep yelling and I might vanish before you get a second chance to bite me.”

I was about to snap at him when Cassian showed up, jogging over with a few men behind him.

He slowed when he saw Sebastian carrying me.

“You found Cecilia ? What about Harper ?”

He looked around, clearly expecting someone else.

I shot Sebastian a cold glare.

At least Cassian seemed to have his priorities straight.

Cassian, of course, had no idea what kind of weird scene he’d just walked into.

Sebastian let out a long sigh.

“Harper got… swallowed by a tree,” he said. “Can you go find her ?”

Cassian blinked. “Swallowed by a tree ?”

Sebastian pointed toward an ancient oak.

“That one. Cece says Harper vanished around there. Just… use your imagination.”

Cassian raised an eyebrow but didn’t argue.

“Fine. I’ll check. You get her out of here.”

He turned and motioned for his team to follow.

His reaction gave me a little hope, but I still couldn’t forget how strange Harper had seemed.

I called after him.

“Cassian, something’s off with her. She’s not stable. It’s like she inhaled toxic mushrooms or something. Be careful!”

Cassian gave a thumbs-up over his shoulder and kept walking.

Sebastian carried me away from the cemetery.

I rested against his chest, eyes still locked on the giant tree.

“Are you mad at me ?” he asked quietly.

I glanced up.

“You’re not real. Why would I argue with my own brain ?

He chuckled.

“Fair enough.”

Then he kissed me. Lightly.

“So… was that your left brain or your right brain that wanted that ?”

His voice was low and playful, with just enough edge to make my heart skip.

A warm shiver ran down my spine.

He kept walking, carrying me along the narrow path back to the village.

The moonlight stretched over us like a thin silver sheet. The air was still. It felt like a dream.

Author ’s pov

The calm didn’t last long. Cassian’s part of the search turned chaotic fast.

He and his team had already torn up the ground around the tree, even checking between tombstones and under roots.

The guards looked like they’d crawled out of a mine. Their shirts were torn, and their hands were covered in dirt.

Cassian had unbuttoned his shirt halfway down from the heat and effort, the white bandage on his side peeking out.

He stood with his hands on his hips, circling the massive oak with a look that clearly said, What the hell ? She’s even better at hiding than me.

The rest of the team gathered nearby, muttering over each other:

“Mr.Cassian, we’ve checked everything. She’s not here.”

“If that was a blink, it lasted a hell of a lot longer than it should’ve.”

“I looked in every crack. She’s not under or behind anything.”

Cassian didn’t say anything. He was staring up at the tree’s thick canopy.

The thing was massive. You’d need at least fifteen people holding hands to wrap around it. Its branches stretched wide, blocking out most of the moonlight like a wall.

Then one of the guards joked, “Maybe she really was swallowed by a dryad.”

That made Cassian freeze. His eyes narrowed.

Without saying a word, he strode up to the trunk and yanked aside a curtain of vines. Behind it, there was a hollow. A big one.

He flicked on his flashlight and aimed it inside.

There she was. Harper.

Harper was curled up at the bottom of the hollow, completely out cold.

She looked like she’d been there for a while. Her skin was pale, her body still, like she was sleeping off a strange dream.

Cassian let out a slow breath, then gave a short laugh.

“Alright. Looks like the tree really did eat her.”

The hollow was massive. It had to be at least two meters wide and more than a meter deep.

It looked like something nature had carved out on purpose. A wooden cocoon, quiet and hidden.

The others crowded around.

“Holy crap. How’d she fall in there ?”

“Maybe she tripped in the dark ?”

“Want me to climb in and get her out ?”

Cassian held up a hand.

“No need. If she wakes up and sees someone she doesn’t know, she might take your face off.”

Everyone backed off fast.

After what happened with Tang, no one wanted to mess with someone who might be mid-trip.

Cassian jumped down smoothly. The space was tight, but he moved like it didn’t faze him.

He scooped Harper gently into his arms and started to lift her.

But then she moved.

Her eyelashes fluttered. Slowly, she opened her eyes.

For a moment, neither of them said a word.

Their eyes locked.