Page 67 of Cursed Dreams
His gaze held hers “Not all dreams are illusions”
“This doesn’t make sense”
“Not yet” he said softly “But it will”
He took another step closer, gaze flickering across her face as if searching for something lost.
“I’ve watched you Thalia, Dream after dream. You never saw me, not fully, but I was always there”
The way he said her name sent a shiver down her spine.
“I - how do you know my name?” Her voice cracked “Why do you say it like that?”
His thumb brushed her cheek again, reverent, grounding.
“Because I’ve always known you”
Thalia’s heart pounded painfully in her chest.
This is insane. But it didn't feel insane. It felt terrifyingly right.
Her thoughts were spiralling. The prince in the illustration. The recurring dreams, this forest, him. It all pressed in at once, too much, too fast. She forced a breath through her lungs.
“If this is real” she murmured searching his face “then ... how?” her voice shook. “Why can I hear you now? Why can I touch you? Every time before, I woke up the moment you reached for me”
His expression shifted, thoughtful and serious, and for a moment he didn’t speak. He simply studied her like he was trying to unravel a mystery only he could see.
“Where were you when you fell asleep tonight?”
Thalia blinked, confuse by the question.
“In the temple of Eshu” she said slowly, then added with a bitter laugh “I was praying, for a patient I couldn't save”
“I failed him. I tried so hard to find a cure, but ...” she stopped, biting down hard on her lower lip to keep it from trembling.
Caelum’s features softened. He reached out again, this time placing his hand gently over hers, his touch steady and grounding.
“I heard the sorrow in your voice,” he said “I felt it”
Thalia looked up at him confused. “You... felt it?”
His nod was slow. “The temples, especially the old ones, are built upon wells of magic, places where mana pools and flows through the earth like rivers beneath the surface. When one such as you preys with a heart as open as yours... it heightens your magic. Strengthens your connection to the hidden threads of the world. “
She stared at him, stunned.
“Your saying.... the temple made this possible? Us talking?”
His smile returned, this time filled with a strange tenderness, “It allowed you to dream walk, and I was waiting”
She hadn’t thought this night could get any more surreal. Yet standing here with him, in the very forest she’d seen in her dreams so many nights before, with his touch still warm against her skin, it didn't feel like a dream at all.
It felt like something real, something ancient, something fated.
She shook her head, overwhelmed,
“This is too much. You, this place, it's beautiful, but I don’t even know if I believe any if this is real.”
Caelum stepped closer again “Then believe what you feel”
