Page 103 of The Healing Dragon
“Thank you for bringing him home,” Pad says.
Oliver’s home is the Black Castle. He made it home. I was fated to fulfill my promise without knowing. This is not how I wanted things to go, but it’s how they happened.
“It was the least I could do for him. Now, I vow to become someone worthy of all his sacrifices. To keephis memory alive.”
“He was right about you, you know.” Pad clears his throat. “You’re just like Rosa.”
“How so?” I ask, eager to learn anything I can. “Wait, he talked about me?”
I never got an inclination to believe Pad knew me before we met at the kitchens, but his kindness always felt deeper than the time.
“He mentioned you here and there. Rosa was an unstoppable force of nature with a strong will. She was also very caring of only those she deemed hers to protect.”
I look down at my hands then back at Pad. “She sounds more like the person I should become than the person I am.”
“We all have room for improvement.” He pats his stomach in good humor.
I laugh and cross the distance toward Oliver. “I wish things were different.”
“That makes two of us.” Pad takes my hand in his and leads me out of the clinic. “It’s time for some comfort food.”
“I don’t think I can eat right now, Pad.”
“His favorite was stew.”
I laugh and tears fill my eyes. “I know.”
I recall the times Oli would visit my room during the nights my father would send me to bed without dinner. Olis idea of dinner was mostly crackers of different kinds or stew. It didn’t take long for me to realize that he would be the one to make the stew.
One night I refused to eat it and he left it in my room in case I changed my mind. The next morning, my maid commented on the soup. My fear of getting Oli in trouble made it so I would never leave it again.
“Janelle!”
My name comes from the end of the hall. Matias andSantiago sprint to us with a book in their hands and wide smiles on their faces.
“We found him.” Matias pushes the book to my face. “We got him.”
“Who?”
I take the book in hand and look at the already open page. My eyes find the name in a second, as if they already knew where to look. The name we have been searching for is finally spelled out before me and I cannot believe it.
Klause Pazduelo.His last name, at last. Pazduelo.
The connection cannot be coincidence. I no longer believe in those. Everything is a part of something. Nothing is a singular speck in this spiderweb called life.
“Look who his father is,” Santiago says, almost shaking in anticipation.
My eyes climb one person up in the family tree.
“Knox,” I say, the gasp I let out is audible.
My hands tighten on the book. His father is no other but a prince from hell. All the comments about his magic being ancient and not like ours suddenly make sense. His magic is demon-like. I look at the woman beside Knox. The infamous witch that married a prince from hell, Olivia Pazduelo. It looks like more than one of the Pazduelo sisters produced offspring after all.
“Olivia Pazduelo,” I say, as if everything now makes sense.
Pad looks over our shoulders to the book. “Pazduelo is an old witch’s name. Once known as the most powerful witches in existence.”
Matias gestures down at the page and points at a woman in the same row as Klause. Under a different prince of hell.
