Page 54 of Cursed Dreams (Shadow and Dreams #1)

T he door to her dormitory clicked shut behind her like a judgment passed.

Miryanne walked ahead in rigid silence, her spine as straight as a rod, her steps echoing crisply along the polished stone corridor.

Thalia followed, her feet heavy with dread, heart pounding loud enough to drown out her thoughts.

Everyone had heard. Of course they had. Her argument with Vaelith had played out in the middle of the corridor, too public, too heated to be dismissed as anything but a scandal.

Now, the consequences followed her like a second shadow.

The whispers started almost immediately.

A pair of junior priestesses stopped talking altogether when they spotted her coming.

One quickly looked away; the other didn't. Her eyes narrowed with barely veiled curiosity before she leaned in to murmur something to her friend, who gasped. Thalia kept walking. Two more acolytes turned the corner up ahead, their pace slowing when they noticed her. One of them, she couldn’t tell who snorted softly, but whether it was amusement or disdain, she couldn’t tell.

Her cheeks flamed anyway. They passed beneath one of the temple’s archways, the stained-glass windows casting slanting light in jewelled blues and golds across the floor.

It should’ve been calming, this place had once felt sacred, like sanctuary.

But now it felt like a cage in a circus, and she was the star attraction.

Miryanne’s silence cut like glass. Not a single word had passed between them since she’d shown up at the dormitory door.

She hadn’t needed to speak. The curl of her lip, the raised eyebrow, the flash of something almost like pity, but laced with disdain, had said everything.

Thalia burned with a mess of shame and anger.

The weight of the gazes around her, of the whispers and the sidelong looks, pressed in like a vice.

She wrapped her arms around herself as they rounded another corridor, her stomach twisting.

Her argument with Vaelith played again and again in her mind, the flash of molten gold in his eyes, the way he had grabbed her.

The blinding light inside her, threatening to lash out again.

She shivered. She should have ran when she seen him, she was a fool to try to bait him into loosing control, then almost loose control herself.

The walk ended at the thick, carved door to the High Priestess’s office. Miryanne finally turned to face her, cool detachment in her eyes.

“She’s expecting you,” she said simply, before stepping aside to let Thalia through.

Thalia straightened her shoulders, pushed down the tremble in her hands, and forced herself to nod.

You’ve going to be okay. You’ve done nothing wrong she tried to reassure herself.

But as she reached for the door handle, her heart pounded so violently it drowned out any last part of her that believed it.

The heavy door clicked shut behind her, muffling whispers and closing her off from the prying eyes and stares.

The High Priestess’s office was exactly as Thalia expected it to be, warmly lit, orderly, lined with tomes and scrolls that gave off the faint scent of ancient parchment and sandalwood.

Despite the warmth Thalia found the space felt cold, condemning.

High Priestess Elara sat behind her carved desk, her expression blank, though the tightness around her mouth spoke volumes.

She gestured gracefully to the seat across from her.

“Please, sit.”

Thalia obeyed, her legs stiff, her heart already trying to escape her chest. She folded her hands tightly in her lap to keep them from trembling. Elara exhaled softly, folding her own hands before her on the desk. Her voice was calm, but the words carried weight.

“I trust you know why you’ve been summoned.”

Thalia’s mouth was dry. “I…” She swallowed. “I think so.”

Elara nodded slowly, and for a moment, she simply studied Thalia with those violet, discerning eyes.

“When word reached me of your… association with Lord Vaelith, I allowed myself to believe it was an unfortunate but harmless entanglement. You are both adults, and your personal lives are not mine to control.”

Thalia’s pulse thundered in her ears. A wave of shame rose in her chest.

“But what happened this afternoon,” Elara continued, her voice softening but not easing, “was public. It was disrespectful and unprofessional. You argued with him, no shouted at him, outside the hospital wing. In front of your professors. Your peers. The patients.”

Thalia’s eyes burned. “High Priestess, I—”

“And then,” Elara said, cutting gently but firmly across her, “you struck him.”

The room spun. Thalia gripped the edge of her seat, trying to breathe, trying to speak, to explain —but Elara lifted a hand to quiet her.

“Do not mistake me, dear. I am not unsympathetic. I have always seen great promise in you. You are bright, intuitive, gifted. But your actions, whatever their cause, have left me no choice.”

“No,” Thalia whispered, but the word was barely air. Her stomach dropped into freefall.

“We cannot have violence in our halls,” Elara said. “We cannot allow discord to fester among our students. And we cannot risk further disruption from your... entanglement.”

The word cut sharper than it should have. Thalia blinked, stunned. Entanglement? Is that what they thought this was?

Elara looked pained. “You will leave the temple tomorrow. Your classes have been suspended indefinitely. You are to return home at first light.”

Thalia’s world crumbled inward.

“But, please, High Priestess—” Her voice broke, the words tumbling out. “This is all I’ve ever wanted. I’ve worked so hard, I’ve done everything, my whole life, I’ve—”

Elara stood. “I am sorry, Thalia. I truly am. But the decision is final.”

Thalia sat frozen in the chair, the air thick and choking around her. Her mind reeled. No. This couldn’t be happening. Not now... Not after everything. The High Priestess’s words echoing through the hollow space in her chest where her heart once occupied.

Leave. Suspended. Tomorrow.

It didn’t feel real. Her hands trembled in her lap. Her heart ached, no, burned as though something inside her was caving in.

“I—I understand,” she whispered, her voice brittle.

Elara’s expression remained calm, measured. “I know this is difficult. But I hope, in time, you’ll understand why—”

“I had to stop him.”

The words tumbled out before Thalia could stop them. She sat up straighter, voice shaking, her eyes brimming with hot tears. “He wasn’t just angry, he was, he was furious . He grabbed me. And I had to stop him. I know you think this is just a lovers’ spat but it’s not. It’s not that at all.”

Elara’s brows drew together. “Thalia, I’m trying to give you a graceful way forward—”

“No.” Her voice cracked. “No more pretending. You need to know who he is.”

The tears came fast now, slipping down her cheeks unchecked. Her breath hitched, and for a moment, she couldn’t find the words. She’d held this in for so long. Too long.

“Vaelith isn’t who you think he is. He’s not just some important noble here to help at the temple. He’s, he’s dragon fae. From the war.” Her words sounded crazy, she knew it, but she had to warn her. She had nothing left to lose.

Elara blinked, her face carefully blank.

Thalia pushed on, desperation rising in her voice. “I didn’t believe it either at first. But I felt it. I saw it in his magic. His eyes . And he told me. When we were fighting. When I said I would free the prince.”

Elara tilted her head slightly. “What prince?”

Thalia’s throat tightened. “Caelum,” she whispered.

“The prince of the Forgotten Realms. The fae aren’t dead, at least their Prince isn’t.

He’s trapped in a dream state beyond the veil.

I’ve seen him since the first night I arrived, I’ve dream walked with him.

And the night of the equinox when the veil thinned, he crossed over to find me.

I know this sound crazy but it’s true. He’s trapped there.

We’re soul bonded, I know it. I felt it while I was with him.

And Vaelith—he’s trying to keep him trapped.

He’s hiding something, no, he’s hiding everything .

He was there in the wars; he helped build the veil and trapped the prince.

I’ve been trying to find the Forgotten Forest, the temple of Kek is there and it holds the truth about what really happened in the war.

He’s been guarding the temple to stop me from dream walking. He’s ... He’”

She was sobbing now, the truth pouring from her like a storm breaking after too many days under pressure.

“I didn’t come here to stir up trouble,” she continued, voice hoarse. “I wanted to be a healer. That’s all I ever wanted. But now... now I can’t pretend. I can’t walk away. Not when I’ve seen what I’ve seen. Not when I know what’s at stake.”

Silence fell around the room, broken by Thalia’s heaving sobs.

Elara stared at her for a long moment. The flickering sconce behind her cast shifting shadows across her ageless face. When she finally spoke, her voice was soft.

“You believe this. All of it.”

“I do.”

“You believe Caelum is trapped in the dream realm. That Lord Vaelith is keeping him there.”

Thalia nodded. Her cheeks were wet, her hands clenched into fists in her lap.

Elara leaned back slowly in her chair. Her expression was unreadable.

“Kek…” Elara muttered.

Thalia’s breath caught. She sat straighter, hope flickering through the fog of her despair.

“You know the name,” she said quickly. “You’ve heard of him—”

“I know of him,” Elara said. “A forgotten god. Whispers in ancient lore. Shadows in shadowed corners. It’s an old song from my village, but yes I have heard the name" She stood, walking slowly to the arched window that overlooked the temple gardens.

“When I was a girl,” she murmured, “I heard tales. Stories told only in candlelight, in quiet voices. Of a temple buried by time. Of a god of truth that the gods themself tried to erase.”

She turned to Thalia, her eyes like a swirling violet vortex. “No one speaks of Kek anymore. Not in this temple. Not in any temple.”

Thalia rose to her feet, hope and desperation warring in her chest. “Then you do believe me.”

“I believe you believe it,” Elara said. “And that may be enough.”

For a long moment, they simply stood there. One High Priestess. One trembling female.

Elara finally sighed. “Return to your dormitory. I must think on what you’ve said.”

“Will you still send me away?” Thalia asked, voice small.

Elara didn’t answer. She turned back to the window.

“Go.”

Thalia hesitated, her knees weak, her chest aching.

She turned, and walked to the door, leaving a trail of unanswered questions in her wake.

The corridor felt unusually long as Thalia trudged back to her dormitory, each step weighed down with dread and uncertainty.

Her cheeks were still damp from the tears she’d tried to wipe away in vain, and her head pounded from the sheer intensity of everything that had transpired in the high priestess’s office.

She barely registered the curious stares and hushed whispers trailing behind her, other acolytes peering from doorways, pausing mid-conversation as she passed.

Everyone must have known by now. Between the argument with Vaelith, and now, after disappearing into High Priestess Elara’s office for the better part of an hour, she had become the subject of every hallway murmur and passing glance.

She hesitated outside her door, her hand trembling against the wood.

She wasn’t sure if she had the strength to recount it all again.

But when she opened it, the sight of Nyla, Cellen, and Marand all rising to their feet with anxious expressions made her legs give out.

Nyla rushed forward and caught her before she fell, guiding her to sit at the edge of her bed.

Marand knelt beside her while Cellen, hovered just behind them, his arms crossed tight.

“What happened?” Nyla asked softly, brushing a strand of hair from Thalia’s face. “We were waiting. We’ve been so worried.”

Thalia let out a shuddering breath and swallowed back the lump in her throat. “They’re sending me home,” she whispered. “Tomorrow.”

Silence fell like a stone in the room.

“They’re what?” Cellen blinked, all colour draining from his face. “You’re joking.”

“I wish I was,” she said bitterly, voice cracking. “The high priestess said… said that my behaviour is inappropriate. The fight with Vaelith… they saw it all. And she said she can’t tolerate it anymore.”

“But that’s not fair!” Marand cried. “He, he grabbed you. You were scared. There were witnesses”

“I told her everything,” Thalia said. “About Caelum. About Vaelith. About the Temple of Kek and the Forgotten Forest. I… I laid it all out. She didn’t yell.

She didn’t scream. She just looked at me like—like I was some lost cause.

She told me to go back to my dorm while she thinks over what I’ve said. ”

The others were stunned into silence for a moment, trying to process it.

“And if she doesn’t believe you?” Nyla finally asked, her voice soft.

“Then I’m gone,” Thalia said. “But even if she does… Vaelith won’t let me stay. He’ll push me out. Or worse.”

“We’re not going to let that happen,” Cellen said firmly, pacing now. “We’re in this with you. All of us.”

“We’ll figure something out,” Marand added, squeezing her hand. “You’re not alone.”

Thalia looked around at her friends, their fierce unwavering loyalty didn’t hide the fear in their eyes. She wasn’t alone. Yet she felt it.