Page 24 of The Healing Dragon
“Are you some creepy peeker?” She crosses her arms.
“What?” his head shakes back and forth. “No!”
Janelle gives him her best chastising look. The edges of my mouth tilt up.
“I was just wondering why you two don’t invite anyone else.” He doesn’t wait for us to answer. “What do you guys do here?” He looks inside the canoe and scrunches his nose at the books.
“Today I am water painting,” Janelle tells us as she picks up her bag. She opens it and shows us all the supplies inside.
“It’s summer. Shouldn’t we be having fun?” Roman whines.
“This is fun.” She mocks, offended.
“Jesse?” His question comes with an over-enthusiastic head shake. “Let’s go jump from the swing dad tied to the tree branch.”
The idea sounds enticing, but it would take much more than that to persuade me to leave.
“I am right where I want to be.” At his outraced expression, I add, “We will paddle closer to the swing. We will score your jumps.”
With a smile only Roman Oscuro can muster, he turns toward the swing. “Let’s race there. If I win, you two have to join me eventually.”
He won that race and we eventually joined him in the lake. We swam until our skin wrinkled and the sun set. The laughter mixed with the sounds of the night.
Everything shifted that day. A new normal was created for us. Every day that summer, Brandon found us after a long day of doing whatever his training intended. We never talked about it per his request, but we helped him let loose and forget, even if it was just for a few hours every night. When Janelle visited my room after that, Roman and Brandon would find themselves there, too.
The four of us spent countless hours together. However, even with them in the room, it never felt like she blended with them as she did with me.
CHAPTER EIGHT
JANELLE
The dream is always the same. It starts with the smell of smoke, and then the heat of the fire skims across my skin. It's followed by the screams of people. I never see their faces, but I see their shadows running away. I don’t realize they are running away from me until it’s too late. It's not until the flames my body is composed of have devoured everything in my path that I stop and look behind me. It's chaos and agony as far as my eyes can see. I think I’m rushing after them to help them until I realize what I am. I’m the snake made of fire that my magic creates.
“Janelle,” a voice calls.
I snap my eyes open and look up at Jesse’s confused gaze. His hands are holding my face in a tender touch.
“You are okay.” He lets me go and stands up.
“I am,” I say and look around. “I’m awake.”
I’m not the one being chased by the fire. I am the one wielding it. The dreams come every night while my eyes search for sleep. If I would have slept the night before, they’d have come in the woods under the sky.
I wipe sweat from my face and realize my skin is hot to the touch. Jesse doesn't say anything else as we both get ready for the day. I can see the questions in his eyes, but he holds them back. Regardless of the reason, I am thankful for it.
I start my duties with the rest of the staff. Jesse goes on his own to search for the Red Book. In contrast, I have tasks on my to-do list of places that need my attention before the end of the day. I survey the paper and calculate the number of things I need to do. It’s clear my father doesn’t expect me to finish by the number of items, which only fires me up higher. But there’s one place I plan on visiting first.
“Matias?” I try to get his attention, but not even a flinch registers on his face.
He is lying on the hard floor with nothing underneath to cushion him. The other prisoners move around him with ease, as if they know he is harmless and will continue to be. I might as well be invisible to them. They act and move about as if I’m not even here.
“He will not answer,” one man says from the other side of the cell.
I’m uncertain which one. They say nothing else, so I can’t attribute the voice to someone in particular.
I look into Matias’ eyes and see a glimmer of something familiar. “I hid in there too, you know,” I say, tapping my temple.
His eyes are still focused on something beside me. I stop trying to catch his attention and think of that night. How I got there and what brought me back.
