Page 17 of Cursed Dreams
Why am I even looking for him?
She had barely seen Vaelith all day, and that wasgood, wasn’t it? He unsettled her. He was unreadable. Too cold, too intense.
Still… he was starkly different from Marcus and appeared to have an uncanny ability to know when she needed saving from his persistent unwanted advances. He had the air of something untouchable, something from the stories she had cherished as a child. Maybe that was it. Maybe it was her fascination with the old High Fae legends, andnothingmore.
I’m only tired,she reasoned.And looking for anything familiar.
Shaking herself, she focused on the meal in front of her, determined to banish such foolish thoughts. There was no point wasting time thinking about someone who made her feel so uneasy for a sense of comfort. She just needed a decent night's sleep.
Thalia was running.
The forest stretched endlessly before her, a tunnel of towering emerald trees, their leaves shimmering in muted tones as though drained of life. The air was thick with the scent of damp earth and something faintly sweet, almost like jasmine, but unfamiliar.
She didn’t know where she was going. Only that shehadto get there.
Her bare feet barely made a sound against the soft forest floor as she pushed forward, heart pounding, breath coming in shallow gasps. The light filtering through the canopy above was dim, casting shifting shadows that seemed to move in the corners of her vision.
she heard it then.
A voice. A whisper.
"Thalia."
Her name drifted through the air, carried by the wind, soft yet insistent. It sent a shiver down her spine.
She turned her head, searching, but saw nothing. Just the endless stretch of trees, the never-ending path winding ahead, beckoning her forward.
"Thalia."
The whisper came again, closer this time, tinged with something she couldn’t place. Urgency? Longing?
Her pulse quickened.
Shehadto reach the end of the path.
Her legs burned, but she didn’t stop. Couldn’t. The desperate pull in her chest told her she had to keep moving, had to get to, towhat?
The answer remained just beyond her grasp, like the path itself, stretching on and on no matter how fast she ran.
Faster. Faster. She needed to be faster.
Her breath hitched as the whisper came again, wrapping around her like a ghostly caress.
"Find me."
The words sent a strange, aching pain through her chest. It was familiar somehow, this voice, this place, though she couldn’t understand why.
The trees blurred at the edges of her vision, the muted colours of the dreamscape swirling together as the whisper grew fainter, distant.Fading.
“No—wait!” she tried to call out, but her voice didn’t carry.
Her legs faltered, her balance tipping, she woke with a sharp inhale. A cold rush of air against her damp skin.
Thalia blinked up at the ceiling, her heart still racing, her body rigid with the lingering urgency of the dream. The room was still cloaked in darkness, save for the faint slivers of moonlight spilling through the curtains.
Thatfeeling,Thatache.
It sat heavy in her chest, a longing so deep it left her breathless, yet she had no ideawhy.
