His taunting her brings out her haughtiness. "You perform a simple dream summoning, and you think you've challenged me, Byron?" she laughs at him, raising herself off the ground, "In dreams anything is possible, it is the easiest magic to learn. As simple as flying, Byron, any novice can do it...." Byron gazes up at her, hovering above him. She looks magnificent & triumphant: she is not the young girl he once loved, she's a veritable goddess now. And he loves her all the more for it.

"I don't think any novice could summon you, Serena," he replies. "You are too powerful & well-trained for that." Grasping her waist, he pulls her back down to the ground.

And he pulls her down into his arms & kisses her. It's just a dream, he remembers, but it is also a dream come true: she will remember this tomorrow as well as he. "I don't think a novice like myself could have summoned you, either, Serena, if it weren't for what we've shared," he says to her, reminding her of their powerful bond, of their mutual feeling which no amount of time apart can lessen.

Though it's a dream, her skin feels miraculously real, her kiss tastes so familiar, though he hasn't touched her like this since they were lovers so long ago, he remembers everything about her. "Have you missed me, Serena? I have missed you terribly...." he admits, wanting her to know how he still feels, needing to know how she feels, too.

"We swore we would never look back, never talk about what is passed," she says, and he knows by her avoidance of the question, that she has missed him. And if she's afraid to speak of their past, it is because it is her weakness, and that becomes the source of his hope.

"I didn't know how painfully lonely my life's journey was to be then, Serena. I was young & a fool...But I won't speak of what is passed, if you insist on holding me to my vow. I'm speaking of what is now, Serena, about the long dark road that stands before us, about the future...." he says to her, holding her chin so she must look him in the eyes. "Byron, we've made our life choices, you cannot ask me to revisit this...and a dream is no place to discuss this kind of thing," she answers. Despite her words, her arm stays around him: she is not interested in letting him go, no matter what she says. As a movie director, he understands body language as obvious as hers....Serena is no actress, her body tells him no lies...even in a dream.

"Come to me tomorrow, then," he says, "You promised to be by my side for this production. We're doing a costume session tomorrow & I want you to be there." He gets her promise to come to him, and that was what he summoned her here for.

He kisses her again, one last time as the dream castle dissolves around them and he wakes to a new a day. She promised to come, today, he thinks, as his eyes open.

NEXT