Page 21 of Pierce

8

Jasmine

I didn’t knowwhat was real and what wasn’t anymore. Was I still in the cell? Had the dragon let me go? Sometimes I would open my eyes, and I’d be outside, in the sunshine, soaking the rays into my skin and letting the energy flow through me.

The sun always rejuvenated us—my sister called us “solar powered, ” and we would laugh about it. I used to feel sorry for humans, knowing the sun didn’t do for them what it did for me. But they didn’t know any better, and creatures who didn’t know what they were missing weren’t suffering.

All was well. The pain was just a dim memory. It was a beautiful day, and Papa just held a meeting of all his advisors, so Alina and I had slipped out of the house—it was so boring in there—and gone off together to explore some of the crumbling old outbuildings along the edges of the property.

We weren’t supposed to go there, not alone, but what Papa and all his advisors didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them. Alina was running just ahead of me, giggling and whispering to me to run faster. I could never quite keep up. Her hair, so blonde it was nearly white, streamed behind her like a flag.

I must have tried to move in my sleep—or was it a hallucination? The movement sent a fresh bolt of agony up my arm and down my right side. It was spreading. What was spreading? I wasn’t sure. Some part of me knew, but I didn’t want to think about that.

We were having too much fun. Where was Alina? How did I end up in a cave? Were there caves on the property? I had never seen any or heard of them, but they had to be there if I was in one.

“Alina?” I shouted, but it came out as a hoarse whisper. She would never be able to hear me.

I closed my eyes, and I was with her again. She popped out from behind what remained of an old stone cottage.

“I’m right here, silly,” she laughed before disappearing again.

I tried to follow her, but the ground was all covered in weeds and tangled vines. They kept catching my feet, wrapping around my ankles, tripping me and threatening to pull me down.

“Alina, help me!” I scream-whispered, falling.

She was far away by now. She didn’t know I needed her. No matter how hard I fought or how loud I tried to scream, it didn’t matter. She was too far.

My head rolled from side to side, and the images got all mixed up. I was outside, I was inside. It was dark, it was light. I didn’t know where I was for sure. I didn’t know how to get home. Sweat rolled down my neck, between my breasts. I groaned when I tried to move my arm, and it felt like trying to lift lead. Burning, boiling lead.

I opened my eyes, and there was that ceiling again, high above my head. I could barely make it out in the fading candlelight. It was burning low.

I had been in and out for a long time. I raised my good hand—attached to an arm which was heavier than it should’ve been, which told me the poison blood was spreading—and touched my forehead.

My hand came back slicked with sweat. A fever. That would explain the dream.

I jumped at the sound of a throat being cleared.

“Who’s there?” I gasped.

My throat was so dry. My mouth, too. My tongue was like sandpaper. A very tall, very hulking figure emerged from the shadows on the other side of the cell and came closer.

“I’m called Smoke.” He knelt beside me and frowned when he saw the condition of my shoulder. “That doesn’t look good at all.”

Be careful. Remember what the other one said: it doesn’t matter to them whether you live or die.

I licked my dry,cracked lips. “It… doesn’t feel good, either.” Just that little bit of speaking left me winded. This couldn’t go on much longer, and I knew it.

So did he. I could see it written on his face. “What’s your name?”

“Jasmine.”

“That’s a pretty name.”

“And I’m about to die in this cave. Who could’ve predicted it?”

He frowned. “You don’t have to die, you know.”

“I thought you didn’t care.”

---