Page 78

Ignatia

A few days later, as soon as I got out of the hospital, Dante took me to the sanctuary to fill out some papers. I'm only in the lobby where a bunch of black sofa chairs stand on top of shiny pristine white floors.

I bring the small stack of papers I finished filling to Dante, who stands against the front desk ahead of me, painted in black with little purple statues of dreamscreechers guarding either side. “Here. I'm done.”

“Perfect,” he purrs, flipping through the pages. “I’ll put your information in the system and you'll get your room this afternoon.” He sets the papers on the desk before turning his back. “Come. Let's get you introduced to your new home.”

I lower my head and follow him. I have no idea what's going to come for me in the future but here we are. A new life. A new environment. A new group of people to meet.

Dante leads us to huge double doors, carved with images of Godusa and dreamscreechers standing proudly beside her. He smirks at me. “Are you ready?”

“Yes. I am.” I don't feel ready at all but it’s the best I can do.

He nods before opening the doors, leading us into the rest of the building.

I gasp as I walk into the building. Whoa.

The whole building is huge. There's so much open space.

The area in the middle is covered in dark grass and trees - specifically black wooded umbra trees that grow in Somnia, their long branches hunching with rounded lilac colored leaves hanging down from them.

There's black benches in the middle where people are sitting down, watching the children run around.

Scanning the glass walls, I realize there's people walking behind railing and that the glass is sectioned off into what must be rooms. Thousands of rooms. Under the rooms, there are little shops and restaurants, and even sparring rooms with people practicing.

I look back to the ceiling where the lights hang down. They're in the shape of stars and the moon. There's some fluffy cloud-like decorations hanging around them too as if they had actually floated into the building.

It's like a mini city!

I glance back down at the people walking around. “How many dreamscreechers are here?”

“Well we are at half capacity right now. So around five thousand.”

My jaw drops. “This place can hold ten thousand dreamscreechers?”

“Yes. Considering that many dreamscreechers are sharing rooms and such. There's enough for four people in a room, and with two thousand five hundred rooms, yes. The capacity is ten thousand.”

“Wow!” I continue to admire the place. I can't believe there's so many dreamscreechers, all of them happy and safe away from Vasilisa and Amara.

Amias would love it here. I know he would.

My stomach twists. He's not here now. He won't be here for a long time.

I feel helpless knowing I've left that task for Minerva, and I have no way of contacting her since I don't have a phone or an address. I didn't have much of a choice considering the circumstances.

She better bring him back, or else I'll have to kill her myself.

But this isn't over for me and Amias. He will be brought here. He’ll be healed and saved from whatever shit Amara is doing to him.

Even if Minerva is the one going into Amara, I can find my own ways to ensure he gets out.

Even if I have to stay up all night and spend all of my hours and energy to find him, I will.

Our love is worth everything, even my own life.

Amias will come back to me. I will make sure of it.

◆◆◆

“Prince Amias is out on the hunt for Ignatia.”

My nose scrunches at the news. I sit up from the back of the black couch, in the dark room of my suite. I only moved in a few days ago and turned on the news for tonight before sleeping.

Of course he's on the hunt. Now that he's all brainwashed and ready to control, they're having him hunt me down.

It's fucked up. It's all fucked up.

The lady in a blue dress speaks. “There haven't been many new photos of the prince. Many photographers have reported that their photos have been taken down. The few that are still up are confirmed to be edited according to experts.”

A star slides over the screen to reveal Amias, in a long trench coat, surrounded by guards dressed in white jackets.

I grunt and look at his eyes. They look lifeless in that photo. They don't have the same twinkle. That same summer lake that you want to swim in.

They look dull now. Empty.

The news anchor continues. “Some of our experts have said the photos seem to have edited his cheeks to make them look more round, and possibly also under his eyes.”

My body tenses. What does he look like then? Is he skinny now? Starving?

I grunt in disgust. They're covering everything up. If it weren't the case, they wouldn't be deleting photos.

Who knows what kind of condition he's in. Is he okay? If it's really skinny, how so?

They want everyone to think everything is okay. But it's clearly not.

And there's nothing I can do about it.

If I go, I die before I can save him. Someone will kill me.

I'm helpless. I have to wait for Minerva to find him… She will find him right? What if he dies before that? What if I truly lose him forever?

My body shudders. That can't happen. It won't happen. Minerva knows better, right?

It's shitty being so helpless. I have to depend on a strange woman to save him. It's fucked up to me. I should save him. Even if the world is turned against us.

But then it's likely he'd never really be saved if I do that.

I sigh. I can trust Minvera. She has no reason to betray me.

He won't be dead. He won't be dead. He won't be dead.

Minerva will come home with him, and we'll help him after what his Grandmother put him through.

I'll wait. I won't know until Minerva brings him home, but she will bring him home. Every moment I'll wait for him. Every second I breathe is for seeing him again.

He'll be in my arms again. I'll feel his lips on mine once more.

If I don't repeat those words, I'll fight my way out and get us both killed.

I sigh and turn off the news as they switch subjects. Amias. I know you're not there, but I'm here. I'll be here when you're safe from Amara and I'll have you thrive here in Caelestia. We can start over, and change the world together here.

And finally Amias would be free from Amara.