Page 88 of Cursed Dreams
He tilted his head slightly, waiting, kind, patient, but watching her closely.
Thalia let her hands drop, the air burning around her from embarrassment. “There was this… moment. With Vaelith. I didn’t plan it, I didn’t mean for it to happen—things just… escalated.”
Caelum’s jaw tensed, but he said nothing.
“I thought I was in control of myself,” she continued, her voice barely above a whisper. “But then something happened. This… light burst out of me. Not just magic, it felt different. Wilder. Like it didn’t even belong to me. And I thought of you. I felt you. Like your magic was inside me.”
She shook her head again, the words tumbling out now, frantic and uneven.
“I don’t even know if that makes sense. It probably doesn’t. And you probably think I’m insane—but I panicked just now because I didn’t want that to happen again. I couldn’t risk hurting you.”
Silence stretched between them. Thalia’s chest heaved with effort, her mind spiralling into a thousand self-berating thoughts. She couldn’t meet his eyes. She didn’t want to see the disappointment.
Caelum didn’t speak for a moment.
Thalia stood there, breathless, her confession hanging between them like an exposed nerve. The wind rustled through the trees above, stirring the lanterns in soft, glowing pulses. The silence stretched long enough to make her wish she could vanish into the ground.
Gently, he reached out and took her hand, careful, almost reverent. “Thalia,” he said, his voice low, steady, “What you felt… it wasn’t my magic. Not exactly.”
She blinked at him. “Then what—?”
“It was yours.”
“No. That, That couldn’t have been mine. I’ve never felt anything like that.”
“My magic isn’t powerful enough” “ I can heal but that’s all “ “I - couldn’t do that... hurt someone”
Caelum’s thumb brushed lightly over her knuckles, “It was you. All you. But you may have felt me, too. I can feel you sometimes, your emotions. Even when I’m far.”
Her mouth parted, but no sound came. Her head spun.
Caelum glanced down, his jaw tightening, his next words quieter. “The light… that’s curious.” “But it’s not dangerous.”
He said it offhandedly, like a passing thought. But Thalia caught the flicker in his expression there was something he wasn’t telling her.
“You know what it means, don’t you?” she asked softly.
Caelum looked away.
Finally she found the courage to give voice to the thoughts that had been troubling her since it happened. “ I read about something like this in the archives” she hesitated again fighting the turbulence of emotions she was feeling “ Are we ? Are we soul bonded ?”
Caelum went utterly still, his hand fell from hers like it had been burned. His breath caught, and before she could say another word, he dropped to his knees.
“Caelum!” “Oh god I’m sorry, I was wrong .. I got carried away ..”
She moved instinctively, kneeling beside him, but he was already bowing his head, hands braced against the stone path as though something had struck him from within.
He looked up at her eyes wide, shimmering, undone.
“I’d hoped,” he whispered. “I dreamed… gods, Thalia, I dreamed it was you. But I didn’t dare believe.”
She froze. Her heart thudded in her chest like a drum.
“You’re… mine?” he asked, the question barely a breath, full of wonder and fear and aching hope.
“I—” Thalia faltered, utterly stunned. “I don’t, I didn’t know. I don’t know what any of this means.” “I only read some texts and .. “
Caelum reached for her again,
