For one brief moment, I was falling. I could almost feel the cold mountain water on my face.

But an arm snaked around my body and yanked me backward over the railing.

I struggled against the stranger until he finally released me. I stumbled backward and fell hard on my butt, coughing to try to catch my breath. I scrambled back, kicking with my boots, sure that if I looked up, I would see the dark figure from that night.

“What were you thinking? You could have died.”

I glanced up at him, not sure who I was expecting. But I never would have expected him.

“You?” I asked, blinking, hardly believing he was real. “What are you doing out here?”

Jordan Greycloud towered over me, his dark hair loose and flowing in the wind. His face was all hard lines and anger, and his chest rose and fell with each labored breath.

“Saving your life, apparently,” he said.

“Did you follow me out here? Are you the one who’s been watching me?” I asked.

He narrowed his gaze. “Are you seriously giving me attitude right now?” He pointed to the twisted railing. “I just pulled you to safety and you’re yelling at me for following you?”

I straightened, wincing at the fresh pain in my wounded hand as it ripped free of the fabric of my jeans. A dark blood stain had blossomed onto the denim.

“Maybe I didn’t want to be saved,” I said. Which wasn’t exactly true. I didn’t know what was true anymore.

“Maybe that’s not your choice right now,” he mumbled, turning away and running a trembling hand through his hair.

I studied him. This guy actually seemed to care if I lived or died. How did that make sense? He hadn’t spoken to me since the day I chased him down after pictures.

Why did he care what happened to me?

“Who are you?” I asked.

“My name is Jordan—”

“I know your name,” I said, standing. “I want to know who you really are and why you’re out here in the middle of the night watching me.”

He shook his head and looked out into the trees, as if he could see much farther than the darkness of the woods ahead.

“You’re connected to all of this, aren’t you?” I asked.

“All of what?” His eyes cut back to me, as if he were sizing me up. Trying to figure out how much I knew.

“You know exactly what,” I said. I knew I couldn’t trust him, but at this point, I had no choice but to start talking. I’d almost killed myself because of some dark voice in my head. I needed answers, or the next time I might not be as lucky.

“Look, I know there’s something more going on here than just some car accident,” I said. “And I have a pretty good feeling you know exactly what I’m talking about. I need to know what you know and why you care so much whether or not I decide to take a swim in the river.”

He let out a half-laugh, half-sigh and almost smiled. “A swim? Is that what you’re calling it? Because it looked like a death-wish to me.”

I shrugged, trying to act casual even though my entire body was trembling. I couldn’t tell him about the voice. Not yet. He would think I was crazy.

“Just answer the questions,” I said. I needed to know how he was connected to the man in my dreams. If the dark figure on the bridge that night was real, maybe he was, too. “Were you here that night? Did you see what happened?”

His face tensed, and he looked deep into my eyes. He stepped forward, so close I could feel the warmth of his body.

“Why would you think that?”

I froze. We weren’t going to get anywhere just tossing questions back and forth with no answers. If I expected him to give me answers, I would have to start offering up some of my own.

“Fine. If you want to know, I’ve been dreaming about you,” I said.

His eyes widened, and he seemed to freeze in place.

“Well, not you. Not exactly.” I put my good hand to my forehead and tried to find the right words to explain this without sounding like a crazy person. “Someone who looks like you, but is maybe a few years older, I think? I don’t know. All I know is that someone who looks strikingly similar to you showed up in my dreams after the accident. Someone I could swear I’ve never seen in my life. And then I finally come back to school and here you are, enrolled in my class and constantly giving me the side-eye.”

All the anger drained from his face, leaving something tender in its place. Vulnerable and scared.

“This person in your dreams. What does he do? Does he talk to you?” he asked.

I shook my head and backed up a couple steps. I couldn’t think straight with him so close to me.

“He rarely talks to me,” I said. “There are a few different versions of the dream. Sometimes, I’m soaking wet and scared. I think I’m dying. Drowning maybe. But then he appears, like some kind of angel. He pulls me toward the banks of the river and places me on the rocks.”

I moved to the edge of the bridge and pointed down to the rocky riverbank below.

“There,” I said.

Jordan moved to stand beside me. His arm brushed against mine, so warm I wanted to lean into him. How could he be so warm when I was still shivering?

He stared down at the rocks below. “Is that where they found you?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know,” I said. “They haven’t exactly been forthcoming on a lot of the details. I think they’d all rather just forget it happened and move on.”

“I get that from my family a lot, too,” he mumbled.

I looked over at him, surprised. “You do?”

His eyes met mine and for some reason, I just knew he was telling the truth. Whatever sadness I had in my heart from losing my friend was reflected there in his eyes. He’d lost someone, too.

“You know who he is, don’t you?” I asked, struggling to catch my breath. “He’s real?”

But he didn’t answer me. Instead, he took off, walking to the end of the bridge and making his way slowly down the edge of the embankment toward the water.

“Hey, wait up,” I called.

I wasn’t exactly in the mood for a trek down a steep, rocky hill, but I couldn’t just stand there on the bridge by myself. I nearly fell twice on my way down.

Both times, Jordan grabbed my arm to steady me.

“Thanks,” I mumbled the second time before pulling away.

Wow, he really was warm. His hands were nearly feverish.

When he reached the rocky bank of the river, he bent down and placed a hand in the rushing water. He moved some leaves and debris around, as if he were searching for something, though I couldn’t imagine what.

“The accident was over a year ago,” I said. “Even if this is where they found me, anything that would have been there is long gone now.”

He stood and walked around the area, kicking loose rocks out of the way and sometimes bending over to get a closer look at something. I stood still, well away from the edge of the water. Now that we were down here next to the strong rush of it, I was openly shaking.

God, I’d almost fallen into that. Willingly. What exactly had just happened to me?

I backed another foot away and sat down on a large boulder. I wrapped my arms around my middle, wishing I’d brought a jacket with me. I hadn’t expected to be here very long, and it was still August, but up here in the mountains, weather was unpredictable this time of year.

I wasn’t wearing a watch, but it had to be after two in the morning by now.

“What exactly are you looking for?” I asked. I had to raise my voice to be heard over the sound of the water rushing against the rocks.

He slowly made his way back toward me and shook his head. “I don’t know,” he said. “Some kind of sign that he was here.”

I raised an eyebrow.

“Who is he?” I asked again. “Please, I need to understand what happened that night.”

“The guy in your dream, does he have a tattoo here?” He slid a fingertip over the side of his neck, leading down into his black t-shirt.

I could hardly breathe. I nodded. “I can never tell exactly what it is,” I said.

Jordan’s eyes grew darker for a moment, but then he seemed to collect himself and regain control. He cleared his throat.

“I don’t think what you’re seeing is a dream,” he said. “I think it’s a memory. Or a message. Maybe both.”

I stood. “What?”

“I’ve done some research on your accident,” he said. “And what they reported in the papers doesn’t add up. The fall from that bridge is too far for you to have survived. The current is too strong and your system was full of drugs that would have made it difficult for you to react fast enough to swim to shore like they say.”

“You’re saying I should have died?”

“I’m saying there was someone else here that night,” he said. “Someone who was watching out for you or trying to protect you from something far more dangerous than a car accident.”

I wanted to throw up. I’d already been through so much tonight, I wasn’t sure how much more I could take in. I either needed to trust this guy and tell him everything, or I needed to get the hell out of here.

“There was someone else here,” I said, glancing up at the bridge. “Or something. I can’t explain it.”

“Try,” he said, sitting next to me on the boulder.

The warmth of his arm pressed against mine, which was both distracting and comforting at the same time.

I didn’t know anything about this guy. Could I really trust him with my darkest secrets?

Did I have a choice?

“I came out here tonight to try to make sense of everything that’s been going on,” I said. “I wanted to force the memories to come back, and I think it worked.”

“What did you remember, Marayah?”

I stared at him. I didn’t know he even knew my name. It sounded different on his lips, somehow.

“Tell me,” he said softly. “Maybe I can help.”

He placed his hand on mine, and I knew in that moment that I could trust him. And right now, I could use all the help I could get. I had been so alone in all this.

“There was someone standing on the bridge when we got here,” I said. “Hailey was driving, and I could swear there were black tears falling from her eyes. Not like mascara or whatever my doctor tried to tell me it must have been. It was like oil, thick and dark.”

“Tell me about the person standing on the bridge,” he urged.

“It wasn’t a person. Not exactly,” I said. “It was more like a shadow in the form of a person, if that makes sense. It was darkness itself.”

I wrapped my arms around my middle again, unable to control the shivering. Jordan leaned closer and put his arm around me. It felt strange to be sitting so close to someone I barely knew, but at the same time, I needed him right now and he seemed to know that.

“It was difficult to see through the rain, but I thought we were going to hit it,” I said. “But then the dark figure pointed to the right, like it was commanding Hailey to go that way.”

I looked up at him, sure he must think I was losing my mind. But Jordan’s eyes were locked on my face, his lips parted slightly and his body rigid.

“And that’s what she did, right?” he asked. “She turned the car in that direction suddenly, as if she couldn’t control herself?”

I nodded, feeling like I could cry, but I had no tears left. “She told me she was sorry, and then she crashed into the bridge deliberately. It wasn’t an accident, Jordan. But I don’t think she wanted to do it, either. How can that be possible?”

Now that I had said it out loud, I realized just how terrifying it was. Someone—or something—had been controlling Hailey. It had forced her to kill herself. Commanded her to do it, just like it had commanded me to jump.

“What’s happening?” I asked. “Please tell me this is just a nightmare.”

I leaned against him, wanting to curl into his warmth and fall asleep, only to wake and find that this whole thing had been imagined. There was no such thing as a dark figure who could make you kill yourself. It couldn’t be real.

“I’m afraid this is very real,” he said, as if he could read my thoughts. “You’re in danger, Marayah. What happened up on that bridge tonight wasn’t an accident, either, was it? Did something tell you to jump?”

I hid my face inside the crook of his arm. I didn’t want to admit that he was right. I didn’t want it to be true.

He cursed and pulled away, standing to pace at the edge of the woods.

“This is much more serious than I expected,” he said.

“Then you know what it is?” I asked. “The dark figure? The voice in my head?”

“I’m not sure,” he said. “But I think I know someone who can help us figure it out. I need to reach out to them this weekend. Do you think you can meet me Monday after school? I want to take you somewhere. There’s something I need to show you.”

I nodded. I would have to come up with some kind of excuse to get my mom to lift the afternoon curfew, but I would do anything at this point to find some answers.

Jordan started making his way back up the side of the rocky hill, and I followed him.

When we reached the top, I grabbed his arm.

“You have to tell me how you’re connected to all of this,” I said. “How do you know about the dark figure? And why are you so sure the guy from my dreams was really here that night? At least tell me that.”

Jordan turned to me, his face half-shadow, half-moonlight.

“I know he was here, because the guy you’re describing disappeared almost exactly a year ago somewhere in these mountains,” he said. “His name was Ethan Greycloud, and he was my brother.”