Page 30 of Cursed Dreams (Shadow and Dreams #1)

His expression shifted, thoughtful and serious, and for a moment he didn’t speak. He simply studied her like he was trying to unravel a mystery only he could see.

“Where were you when you fell asleep tonight?”

Thalia blinked, confuse by the question.

“In the temple of Eshu” she said slowly, then added with a bitter laugh “I was praying, for a patient I couldn't save”

“I failed him. I tried so hard to find a cure, but ...” she stopped, biting down hard on her lower lip to keep it from trembling.

Caelum’s features softened. He reached out again, this time placing his hand gently over hers, his touch steady and grounding.

“I heard the sorrow in your voice,” he said “I felt it”

Thalia looked up at him confused. “You... felt it?”

His nod was slow. “The temples, especially the old ones, are built upon wells of magic, places where mana pools and flows through the earth like rivers beneath the surface.

When one such as you preys with a heart as open as yours.

.. it heightens your magic. Strengthens your connection to the hidden threads of the world. “

She stared at him, stunned.

“Your saying.... the temple made this possible? Us talking?”

His smile returned, this time filled with a strange tenderness, “It allowed you to dream walk, and I was waiting”

She hadn’t thought this night could get any more surreal. Yet standing here with him, in the very forest she’d seen in her dreams so many nights before, with his touch still warm against her skin, it didn't feel like a dream at all.

It felt like something real, something ancient, something fated.

She shook her head, overwhelmed,

“This is too much. You, this place, it's beautiful, but I don’t even know if I believe any if this is real.”

Caelum stepped closer again “Then believe what you feel”

He took her hand and placed it against his chest. Beneath her palm, his heart beat thrummed, steady and strong. Real.

She looked at him, really looked. Trying to understand what she was feeling. His presence tugged at her in a way she couldn't explain. Not attraction alone, though he was undeniably, but something closer to familiarity. Like a chord inside her was resonating to his.

Thalia swallowed hard, whispering “Why me?”

Caelum’s eyes shimmered with something like pain, or perhaps longing.

“Because the world forgot us .... but I never forgot you.”

His gaze lowered to where their hands had touched.

“Because I knew you would come”

“That doesn’t make any sense.”

“No,” he agreed softly “Not yet”

The light around them flared briefly, as if stirred by something unspoken.

The forest leaned closer. Time held still.

Thalia's heart ached. There was so much she didn’t know, so much she couldn’t begin to understand- but in this moment, it didn't feel like a fantasy. It felt like a memory. One she hadn’t lived yet.

For the first time she was afraid to wake up.

“So” he said after a moment, his voice like velvet slipping through the silence. "You are a healer?”

Thalia nodded slowly, swallowing down the tight knot that had risen in her throat. He said it like it was something rare. Precious.

Caelum’s smile deepened, “Of course you are,” he murmured more to himself than her.

“You were always meant to mend what’s broken”

His words struck something inside her, a soft, aching place she hadn't even realised was sore. Her lips parted to reply, but he was already speaking again, gently.

“The one you were praying for, what is he suffering from?”

She swallowed hard. “His name is Aric. He’s kind .... funny, always smiling even when he’s in pain. He has a wife, a lovely quiet woman and a daughter, just a child. She curls up beside him like he’s her entire world, and he’s ...” her voice cracked “He’s dying”.

Caelum’s brow creased, his expression becoming still.

“We don’t know what it is” she continued “None of the fae or human healers have seen anything like it. He has this green glow that comes in waves, like bursts of power too strong for his body to contain. But each time it happens, it .... it takes more from him. Like it’s burning him out from the inside.

His eyes narrowed slightly.

“We have tried everything” Thalia said her voice thick with emotion. “Every remedy, every spell. Then Vaelith, he said it might be something called Solmara’s Veil, that it could only be cured by the mana of dragon fire. But dragons are gone, extinct. They vanished after the war.”

He was silent for a long moment, then gave her a look so piercing she nearly flinched.

“Is that what you believe?”

She faltered “That’s what I have been taught.”

Caelum’s lips curved, a smile tinged with something bittersweet.

“Then perhaps it’s time to question what you have been taught.”

Her heart stuttered “Are you saying... he can still be saved?”

“I’m saying, “ his hand tightened gently around hers

“Not all the old magic is gone. Some of it sleeps. Some of it waits”

His tone was neutral. “I’ve lived a long time. I’ve learned not to put too much faith in the word extinct”

Her brow furrowed “Are you saying there's hope?”

“I’m saying,” he said with quiet conviction, “you should not give up”

Her heart clenched. She wanted to believe him. She needed to.

She opened her mouth to ask more, but the golden light around them pulsed brighter – sharper, like a rising tide.

He drew closer “You’re waking”

“No,” she breathed panic flaring.

“Not yet” “Please”

The ache in her chest was unbearable. “I don’t want to leave. I don't understand any of this and I need-”

Caelum’s hand rose again, cradling her face. “You will understand. In time”

“I don’t want to go” she whispered “I don't know why, but you ... you feel like ...” she couldn’t find the right words.

“You feel familiar to me,” she said not entirely understanding the words as she spoke them.

“I don’t know why, but when you’re near, everything else quiets”

Caelum’s eyes softened. He raised his hand once more brushing his knuckles gently along her cheek.

“I will find you again, Thalia” he purred “In your dreams”

He leaned in so close she could feel the warmth of him, the brush of his breath, and pressed a gentle kiss to her cheek. A warmth bloomed inside her, radiant and tender.

“I’ll be waiting” he whispered.

Darkness began to swirl around the edges of her vision.

Thalia woke to the sharp crackling of embers and the soft rustle of robes.

The chanting was gone. The warmth of the light had vanished. She blinked against the darkness of the temple, her breath catching as the reality of the waking world returned.

The temple was nearly empty.

Only a few priestesses remained, their hooded figures moving like shadows between the glowing braziers. The scent of incense still lingered, but fainter now smoky and fading, like a dream already slipping through her fingers.

A dream. It had to have been a dream she tried to reason with herself.

She sat still for a long moment, the stone bench beneath her hard and cold, the memory of Caelum’s fingers on her cheek still lingering like heat after flame.

Her heart twisted.

Everything she had learned in the dream came rushing to the forefront of her mind , his name, his title, the Forgotten Fae Realms, the impossibility of his words.

Yet she had felt his heartbeat as real as her own .

She pressed her hand to her chest, where her heartbeat pounded steadily beneath her palm.

How did he know my name? Why did he feel so... familiar? So real?

Her mind filled with questions, try as she might she could not shake the feeling that it really was more than just a dream. There was a connection, she couldn't explain it, not just attraction, but something deeper, older. As though she'd known him in another life… or was always meant to.

Dream Walking.

Thalia shook her head, standing slowly, trying to shake the thoughts loose.

I'm losing my mind, she thought grimly.

She made her way out of the temple in silence, only nodding politely to a priestess who bowed as she passed.

Outside, the streets of Vertrose were quiet, cloaked in the velvet hush of night. The sky above was a canvas of deep violet, silver stars glittering like scattered diamonds.

The streetlamps glowed soft and golden, casting elongated shadows against the cobblestones. Market stalls were closed, their tarps drawn down, the scent of herbs and burning oak clung to the air. A warm wind carried the occasional flutter of paper and the distant hoot of a night owl.

Thalia walked slowly back toward the temple, her mind a whirlwind of unanswered questions.

She rubbed her arms as the breeze brushed past her, trying to push away the unsettling weight of everything she had just experienced.

As she reached the steps of the temple complex, she was about to head toward her dormitory when a figure emerged from the corridor leading to the hospital wing.

She paused, watching the figure striding towards her, causing her heart to race a little. Vaelith.

His white-silver hair gleamed beneath the moonlight; his usual mask of aloof detachment was briefly replaced by something like surprise.

He stopped mid-step. “Thalia?”

She blinked at him, startled by his presence. “What are you doing here?”

He looked slightly awkward, something rare for him. “I came to check on you. After earlier… you were upset. I thought you might need someone to talk to, and I wanted to make sure you got back okay”

Her chest tightened, not from the kindness of his gesture, but from the tiredness that gripped her, bone-deep and overwhelming.

“I was still at the Temple of Eshu,” she said softly. “I needed time to be alone. To think.”

Vaelith nodded slowly, his expression unreadable in the dim light.

“Would you like to talk now?” he asked, his voice more tentative than usual.

She hesitated, but the exhaustion tugged at her thoughts like a tide.

“No,” she said quietly. “I think I just need sleep.”

His silver eyes searched hers for a long moment, he gave her a small, solemn nod.

“I’m always here,” he said simply. “If you need me.”

He turned heading out into the night. Thalia lingered in place a moment longer, her body heavy with exhaustion.

What she needed was rest, but the pull toward the hospital wing was stronger.

Almost without thinking, her feet turned in that direction.

She moved quietly her boots nearly silent on the cool stone floor, the torches flickering as she passed.

Voices echoed faintly ahead, urgent, emotional.

Her stomach twisted.

No.

She broke into a run.

By the time she reached Aric’s room, a small crowd had gathered outside. Priestesses and healers stood murmuring, strange looks etched across their faces.

Thalia pushed through, the small group.

Please no, not now, not like this—

She stepped into the room and stopped short.

Aric was sitting up in bed. Alive. He looked better than alive, he looked well. No green glow, no sickly pallor.

Master Elric was at his side, gently checking his pulse, examining him with something like disbelief and a stunned smile. Aric’s wife was crying, joy and shock mingling in her tear streaked face, her hands clutched over her mouth as she held her sleeping daughter close.

Thalia stared, frozen in place.

“Thalia,” Elric called gently when he saw her. “You’re just in time. Come.”

She approached slowly, still afraid to speak.

Elric smiled at her as he stood. “It would appear he had recovered. All symptoms are gone. Whatever was afflicting him… it’s vanished.”

“I—” Thalia blinked, stunned. “How?”

“I’ve already asked your classmates,” Elric said, his voice almost reverent. “They said they didn’t administer anything. Did you?”

Thalia shook her head, wide-eyed. “No, I… I haven’t been here since earlier.”

Elric nodded, gaze drifting to the heavens. “Then all we can do is praise Amara. A miracle, indeed.” “We will continue to monitor him, of course, but all my examinations show him to be in prefect health”

He offered Aric’s wife a comforting hand on her shoulder, then excused himself to inform the head healers.

Thalia didn’t move.

She stood there, watching the small family cling to each other, warmth and tears filling the room like sunlight.

How?

Her thoughts spun like a storm.

“ Not all the old magic is gone. Some of it sleeps. Some of it waits” Caelum had told her.

A soundless breath left her lips. Her heart soared, warmth blooming in her chest like light rising after storm.

Could it be possible? Could Caelum somehow have done this?

She glanced one last time at Aric and his beautiful family then turned silently and left the room, her feet light.

All she wanted more than anything was to see him again, she had so many questions.

She climbed the stairs to her dormitory, whispering a prayer not to the stars, but to him.

Please… be in my dreams tonight.