Page 10 of Dreams and Dragon Wings
The moment the weight of Bene’s amulet departs from me, a quiet panic flutters in my chest. “Please,” I gasp, already struggling to tamp down my emotions, to dull my glow.
My glow.
It has haunted me ever since the day I turned eighteen—the day I first began to shine like a candle’s flame at the slightest provocation.
But Bene’s necklace has always helped. He enchanted it for that express purpose: to help hide what I am—some accursed oddity clearly tainted by being born too close to the Door.
“No,” Mama says again, trying to pocket it.
But I won’t let her. I can’t. Ineedit.
“Please.” I fight to pry the amulet from her fingers. “Benevolence said Imustwear it at all times. Please, let me at least keep it in my pocket.”
Mama shushes me again, flashing yet another worried glance toward the door. “We do not speak that name in this house, Aurelia,” she reminds me. “It upsets your father.”
But finally, she relents, letting me take hold of the necklace.
I draw in a deep breath and clench my eyes shut, drowning out all other stimuli until there is only me and Bene’s scale beneath my fingers. I focus on it and it alone, on the faint ridges grooving its surface, on the almost imperceptible thrum of magic pulsing from deep within its heart.
My pulse steadies. My glow dims.
When I open my eyes and slip the amulet into my pocket, tucking it in alongside the two letters there, Mama offers me a worried smile.
“You’ll be fine,” she reassures me, though even she doesn’t sound so sure. “Just remember your breathing exercises. And do try not to get too excited, my love.”
My own smile feels thin as I brush past her at last and lead the way out into the hallway, down the stairs, and into the sitting room turned into a nursing ward where Papa sleeps away what is left of his life beneath the watchful eye of Nurse Frances.
The strange illness came upon him last year, reducing him to his current state—a mere shell of his former self. None of the doctors can tell us what is wrong. None of the teas and tinctures they prescribe do anything at all.
Bene could heal him if he were here. I know that all the way down to my bones.
But Bene is a world away, trapped behind the closed Door.
The curtains are drawn over the sitting room windows, leaving only a sliver of late afternoon light spilling across the pillow, illuminating my father’s wan features. He is so pale, so thin.
My heart nearly breaks all over again to see it.
“Hello, Papa,” I whisper, bending over to press a kiss to his brow. “I am off to His Majesty’s ball with Lord Reginald now, but I will come back and tell you all about it later tonight.”
He doesn’t answer me. He doesn’t move. His breathing remains constant yet shallow. His eyes remain closed.
But for a single moment, I could almost swear I see him smile.
“Come on, dear,” Mama softly urges, her hand tucking into the crook of my elbow. “We must hurry if we are to run that… littleerrandbefore we meet Lord Reginald at the palace.”
Errand, she says, as if journeying to the fairy circle one last time and cutting ties with the only man I’ve ever loved is simplyanother item on our to-do list. But I don’t protest. The time for protests is long past.
Father is dying. Today, I am thirty years old.
I cannot wait for my dragon prince any longer.
Chapter 4
Benevolence
Sixteen Years Ago
Iwas being “foolhardy.” That is what Auntie Velda would have said if she knew what I was up to. And she would have been right.
