The stimulation of the waking world often has an effect on dreams, when the dreamer does not immediately wake. This happens to Harrow. She thinks the hand on her arm is part of the nightmare, one of the many hands of the murdered children who haunt her, shaking her. She thrashes and gasps.

Then Gideon's voice cuts through the dream like a knife and parts the vision like it's ripped paper. Black eyes snap open and are swallowed by blacker pupils as she tries to see in the dim light.

Her chest is still rising and falling rapidly. She drags a hand over her sweaty face, impatient with her own anxiety. She rolls onto her back.

"...Numbnuts?"