Page 89 of Cursed Dreams
“You were in my dreams before I ever saw your face. I thought you were a memory I made up to keep myself from falling into the dark. A fool desperate to believe in a prophesy, when I finally saw you, spoke to you, I hoped beyond hope you would feel this too!”
“I—” Thalia felt like her mind had split in two. “How can this be happening?”
He shook his head, smiling through the sheer disbelief in his eyes. “I don’t know. But if what you say is true… then fate is far kinder than I ever imagined.”
Thalia didn’t know what to say. Her world felt like it had tilted sideways.
She was soul bonded. To a prince from a forgotten realm. A man who existed only in dreams, would this be their fate, to see each other once a year when the veil was thin? No, she wouldn’t accept this , couldn’t accept it.
Thalia slowly pulled her hand from his, not harshly, just enough to put a breath of space between them. She needed it. The truthwas too big, too heavy, and her chest felt too tight to hold it all at once.
“Yours?” she whispered, her voice barely holding together. “What does that even mean?”
Caelum’s eyes searched hers, steady and gentle. “Soul bonds are rare. Sacred. They tie two beings across time and distance. They are... eternal.”
She shook her head, her voice a little louder now, a little more panicked. “But you’re not here. Not really. You’re in my dreams, Caelum. What kind of cruel joke is this? What does fate expect us to do—just visit each other in fragments? In stolen moments when the veil decides to be thin enough?”
He didn’t answer. The sorrow in his expression was the answer.
“I don’t understand how this is fair,” she said, her words tumbling out. “Why would the gods give me you, just to keep you unreachable? We’ll never have a real life. No shared mornings. No arguments over who used the last of the tea. No chance at a home, of a family. You’ll always be just out of reach.”
Her voice cracked on the last word. She felt her throat close, grief bubbling beneath her skin like a storm.
Caelum reached for her, his hand cupping her cheek with aching tenderness, slowly he lowered his mouth to hers it felt as though he was kissing her fears away one by one. Thalia melted into it, tears trailing down her cheeks as his lips moved against hers with a patience that broke her heart. Her hands curled into his shirt, gripping him like he might vanish the second she let go.
When he pulled back, their foreheads touched, breath mingling.
“I don’t want to lose this,” she whispered.
“You won’t,” he said.
“How can you be so sure?” she breathed. “We’re worlds apart, Caelum. And I don’t even know what’s real anymore.”
For a moment, he was silent.
“Maybe there’s another way.”
She pulled back just enough to see his face, her eyes narrowing with cautious hope. “What do you mean?”
Caelum’s expression had changed. "I shouldn’t say more. Not yet,” he murmured. “It’s dangerous, even here. But you need to know, I’ve searched. I am searching. There are old paths. Forgotten magics. They may be lost... or they may still exist, buried in places few dare to look.”
“Are you saying there's a way to bring you back?” Her voice trembled.
His silence said enough.
“I need to know,” she whispered. “If there’s a way—I have to know.”
Caelum brushed a thumb along her jaw, his touch ignited that same cold burn in her chest. “When the time is right, I’ll show you. But it must be your choice, Thalia. This path… it may cost more than either of us is ready for.”
He pressed a kiss to her forehead so soft and gentle.
“And if you choose this” “I’ll wait. In dreams. In shadows. In every quiet place the world forgets.”
“I choose it, I choose you”
The ground trembled, she felt it ,there was a change in the air and a loud crack like lightning reverberated near them.Confused she looked around the weather hadn’t changed it was still a warm, clear skied night.
She looked back at Caelum, his form was fading now his touch becoming transient, like silk slipping through fingers. A soft breath of magic tugged at the edges of her soul, whispering time’s up.
