Page 68 of Cursed Dreams
He took her hand and placed it against his chest. Beneath her palm, his heart beat thrummed, steady and strong. Real.
She looked at him, really looked. Trying to understand what she was feeling. His presence tugged at her in a way she couldn't explain. Not attraction alone, though he was undeniably, but something closer to familiarity. Like a chord inside her was resonating to his.
Thalia swallowed hard, whispering “Why me?”
Caelum’s eyes shimmered with something like pain, or perhaps longing.
“Because the world forgot us .... but I never forgot you.”
His gaze lowered to where their hands had touched.
“Because I knew you would come”
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
“No,” he agreed softly “Not yet”
The light around them flared briefly, as if stirred by something unspoken. The forest leaned closer. Time held still. Thalia's heart ached. There was so much she didn’t know, so much she couldn’t begin to understand- but in this moment, it didn't feel like a fantasy. It felt like a memory. One she hadn’t lived yet.
For the first time she was afraid to wake up.
“So” he said after a moment, his voice like velvet slipping through the silence. "You are a healer?”
Thalia nodded slowly, swallowing down the tight knot that had risen in her throat. He said it like it was something rare. Precious.
Caelum’s smile deepened, “Of course you are,” he murmured more to himself than her.
“You were always meant to mend what’s broken”
His words struck something inside her, a soft, aching place she hadn't even realised was sore. Her lips parted to reply, but he was already speaking again, gently.
“The one you were praying for, what is he suffering from?”
She swallowed hard. “His name is Aric. He’s kind .... funny, always smiling even when he’s in pain. He has a wife, a lovely quiet woman and a daughter, just a child. She curls up beside him like he’s her entire world, and he’s ...” her voice cracked “He’s dying”.
Caelum’s brow creased, his expression becoming still.
“We don’t know what it is” she continued “None of the fae or human healers have seen anything like it. He has this green glow that comes in waves, like bursts of power too strong for his bodyto contain. But each time it happens, it .... it takes more from him. Like it’s burning him out from the inside.
His eyes narrowed slightly.
“We have tried everything” Thalia said her voice thick with emotion. “Every remedy, every spell. Then Vaelith, he said it might be something called Solmara’s Veil, that it could only be cured by the mana of dragon fire. But dragons are gone, extinct. They vanished after the war.”
He was silent for a long moment, then gave her a look so piercing she nearly flinched.
“Is that what you believe?”
She faltered “That’s what I have been taught.”
Caelum’s lips curved, a smile tinged with something bittersweet.
“Then perhaps it’s time to question what you have been taught.”
Her heart stuttered “Are you saying... he can still be saved?”
“I’m saying, “ his hand tightened gently around hers
“Not all the old magic is gone. Some of it sleeps. Some of it waits”
