"I don't understand," I say, pacing around my room while Lorelai sits on one of the plush chairs in front of the fireplace. "Why did she leave if she misses me?"

Lorelai shakes her head. "I can't tell you that, Elias. You have to go talk to her yourself. This is...this is too much for me to take in right now; I don't know everything that you know about Dreamwalkers, but—"

My eyes nearly bug out of my head, and I drop down into the chair next to her. "She told you she's a Dreamwalker? Oh, for fuck's sake, how many others has she—"

Lorelai holds up her hand. "Stop freaking out. She hasn't told anyone else. She wasn't even sure she should tell me, but the poor girl was about to lose her shit. And..." She blows a breath out that makes her lips rattle. "Look, just go talk to her. The sooner the fucking better, okay? Something fucked up is going on around here, and you...just go. Now."

"You understand that this is the definition of insanity. Doing the same thing and expecting different results. You are asking me to ask her what is going on. I've already done that and she refused to tell me." I slam my head into the cushion behind my head and stare up at the ceiling. "I don't want to push her if this isn't what she wants."

Lorelai reaches over and places her hand on mine, and I look down at her. "She wants you to ask. I promise she does. She was just too...I don't know...embarrassed... ashamed...to approach you. She feels badly about the way everything happened and she is confused. And honestly...after hearing everything that's going on in her brain...I don't blame her."

I lean forward in the chair and clasp my hands between my knees. I bore my gaze into Lorelai. "If I ignore you and abide by her previously stated wishes, does it put her in danger?"

"Yes, Elias."

It is all the confirmation I need. If my actions put Cordelia in harm's way, I refuse to do it. Even if it means ignoring her plea to stay away. "All right, I'll talk to her."

"Now. You have to do it now."

I glare at her as if I'm annoyed, but the truth is that I'm upset that she so easily got the information from Cordelia that I begged her for. The jealousy I feel would be worse if it wasn't overshadowed by my worry.

The walk down the hallway gives me little chance to consider what I'm going to say or how I'm going to play what comes next. I don't want to add to whatever is going on with Cordelia, but something deep in my gut tells me this isn't going to be the simple Q and A Lorelai thinks it will be.

I knock on Cordelia's door and prop my shoulder on the doorframe. The last eighteen hours have exhausted me.

And when she answers the door, I can see Cordelia is no better off. There are lavender circles under her eyes, a stark contrast to her pale skin. Her white blonde hair is piled in a messy bun atop her head, so many strands falling around her face that it may as well just be loose, and her satin pajama set isn't even wrinkled. Another sign she hasn't actually slept.

She's as beautiful as ever.

"Elias," she whispers, and there's no hiding the relief in her face or her tone. "You came."

I hook my finger under her chin and gently turn her face side to side. "Tell me what's going on."

"I'm tired, so tired. I couldn't sleep last night and now I shouldn't sleep at all. If I do, something bad will happen."

Her words are slurred and I'm struggling to make sense of them. I've never seen her like this, not even when she learned that all the monsters are real. She is breaking down.

"Nothing bad will happen to you. I made you that promise, and I intend to keep it."

She walks back to her bed, and I follow her into the room. Her suitcases sit next to the armchairs like she never unpacked when she left. I hate that she is so out of sorts and I have to pressure her for answers. The only thing she needs right now is to sleep. But I need to know what I'm up against.

"Why can't you go to sleep, belle rêveur?"

She climbs into bed and crawls under the covers, patting the mattress next to her. She is almost drunk with the lack of sleep; I know because after the way she talked to me eighteen hours ago, there's no way she'd be inviting me back into her bed.

I hold up my hands as if to slow her down. "Cordelia, I—"

"What is belle rêveur? I know it's French, but...what is it?" she says, continuing to invite me to sit next to her. "Why do you call me that?"

I ignore her invitation to her bed, but not completely. Kneeling on the ground at her side, I take her hand in mine. "It means 'beautiful dreamer.' But you can't be my beautiful dreamer if you refuse to sleep. And I can't help you with whatever is haunting you if you don't tell me. I want you to share not only your dreams with me but your nightmares as well. Tell me so I can chase them away for you."

Her eyes fill with tears and as though she's been holding them back for hours, she goes ahead and lets them spill over, like she simply cannot physically keep them in for another second. "Elias, how can you even say such nice things to me after the way I treated you?" She drops her head and rests her forehead against mine, as if she's too tired to even hold hers up on her own. "I don't deserve your kindness or your protection. I don't deserve for you to chase the monsters away."

I grip her cheeks and force her to look at me. Her eyelids flutter, heavy with sleep. "Stay with me, Cordelia. I'm not in a sparring match with you. I just need you to talk to me. What happened to make you leave my room last night. You must tell me."

"What languages do you speak, Elias?"

What? What the fuck does this have to do with—then I remember. She said some phrase to me in a language I did not understand before she left last night. That must have something to do with her dream. I list them without even thinking, and she tries to drop her gaze from mine. I don't let her.

"Why? Why are you asking me that, Cordelia?"

"You really don't speak Portuguese, do you?"

I shake my head. "I don't. It's a language I never got the pleasure to learn. I barely know how to say hello."

"And Lorelai, she told me that a Dreamwalker's dreams never lie. Even if what happens in them doesn't come to pass, even if it's just a terrible nightmare...if I run into someone I know in them, they wouldn't do or say something contrary to fact. So you'd never call me bunny rabbit in Portuguese." She wrinkles her nose. "And you wouldn't call me Delia, either, come to think of it."

Oh, fuck, fuck, fuck. This is worse than I ever thought it could be. "No, Cordelia. I would not. Is that all you need to tell me?"

Her head lolls back onto her pillow and her lids begin to droop shut. "Please don't leave, Elias. I'm so tired."

"I'm not going to leave, but please, Cordelia. Tell me what else you saw in your dream."

"You...or I—I thought it was you, said 'I'm coming for you, Delia. In the end, you will be mine' Can you understand now why I was scared? You can, right, Elias?" Her eyelids flutter open, and the stunning grey is locked on mine, pleading my forgiveness.

A clear image of the troll's corpse flashes in my mind. His neck broken and stretched from the weight of his body, And the knife marks in his chest. I get it. I really do. Because I'm just as terrified as her. She has seen my greatest fear in her dreams; I have met it face to face. And it appears it has returned for vengeance.

I brush her hair back from her forehead and press a kiss to the wrinkle between her brows. "I understand more than you can fathom. Rest now. I'm not going anywhere."

No sooner do the words leave my mouth and her eyes close. "Don't let him take me, Elias."

"I won't. I swear to you I won't."

My promise is like sand on my tongue. I have no right making it. I can protect her from a thousand threats. But I'm not sure I stand a chance when it comes to battling the dead.