CHAPTER ONE I was standing in a forest, the trunks of the slender trees wrapped in a blue-green twilight that fell quickly from the East. I was alone except for the fireflies that darted about in the pine-scented air above my head. My body felt odd and slightly feverish, my limbs went from cold and goose- pimply to hot and sweat-sheened in cycles. I wasn’t sure where I was, maybe by the river where I had walked earlier in the day, but further away from the roar of the currents. I couldn’t remember how I got here, or why I was in my sleeping attire, but I wasn’t worried and I wasn’t afraid. For once, in a very long time, I was not afraid. “Perry…” I heard my name on the wind as it brushed my hair off my shoulders and swirled the aqua light away from me. I followed it, my feet quick and quiet on the damp grass. I cleared back the branches of the trees, hearing strange voices emerging from the dark places around me. They sounded so far away. I heard someone crying. She sounded like my sister. I continued through the glade, my pace quickening as the darkness dropped even faster. Finally I saw him, the one who had been calling for me. He sat on